


seven days

by kangseulgis



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: AU, Abandonment, Abandonment Issues, Angst, Betrayal, Death, Depression, Electrocution, Flashbacks, Fluff, Friendship, Hacking, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Wipe, Near Death Experiences, Poison, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-10 07:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12907200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangseulgis/pseuds/kangseulgis
Summary: i don’t have much time, so you’ll have to drill this into your head. you’ll think that this is a dream when you wake, but it’s not. listen to me, minghao.it’s november 24th.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i just wanted to say that this work is loosely based off of @softrapline’s sevenscreen game on twitter since they never finished it, so credit to them for the idea! have fun reading!

“Let’s play murder mystery.”

A ten year old Xu Minghao looked up from the paper that he was drawing on. “What’s that?”

“It’s a game,” explained his older friend, Seungcheol, swiftly. “One of us is the murderer, one of us is the sheriff, and everyone else is innocent.”

The third child in the room, Junhui, piped up as he leaned forward in the recliner that was too big for him, but he sat in it anyway. “Wait, I know this game. We have to kill the murderer. Wonwoo, have you played the game?”

Wonwoo shook his head and softly questioned, “Are we going to play?”

“If you all want to.” Seungcheol leaned back on the couch and placed his arms behind his head. “I can see if Soonyoung wants to join us. He’s played before.”

“Soonyoung is busy,” noted Wonwoo.

Soonyoung was almost always busy doing something, even though he was just a child a little older than Minghao. His father had a secret job that his wife did not even seem to know much about, but Soonyoung seemed to understand more than she ever could, for his father had stated several times that he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps despite the job being rather dangerous. He taught Soonyoung how to work a computer early on — every program, tool, and folder was soon etched in the young child’s mind, courtesy of his father.

“If he’s busy,” Minghao whined, “then why did he invite us over?”

“He wanted to show us something, remember?” Seungcheol answered coolly. “Well, us four can play until he’s ready to show us. I’ll pick the murderer and sheriff, and the other will be innocent.”

“How do we kill the murderer?” Wonwoo inquired.

“If the murderer taps you, then you’re dead. The sheriff will tap the murderer with two fingers, then they’re dead. Got it?”

Minghao rose a brow and shook his head. “This won’t work since you’re just watching. There’s only three people playing!”

“Well—”

Before Seungcheol could speak, a smiling boy popped his head into the room, holding his hand as if it had been injured.

“I got electrocuted, but I’m alright!” the boy cheered excitedly. “Come on, you all have to see this!”

The four did not question how Soonyoung had gotten electrocuted or what he was about to show them, they just shrugged and followed him into his room, deciding to abandon the game for the time being. His room was an odd room for a child of his age. There were three computers mounted on the wall, the one in the middle larger than its companions, but only one keyboard was set on a table. The wallpaper was a plain light shade of gray, the carpet was black, and aside from the computers and the big television on his bedside table, his room was utterly lackluster, the only other objects being his medium sized bed with a dinosaur plush on top of the pillow and a dog bed, although his family had no dog.

“I learned how to do this the other day before my dad left for a business trip,” Soonyoung announced while practically bouncing up and down on his seat in front of the computers.

“Show us,” urged Seungcheol.

Soonyoung did not speak as he pressed a button on the computer, causing the screen to become blank, but it was still turned on. He looked down and began to type on the keyboard, and the others watched in awe as his fingers flew back and forth rapidly between the keys.

“It’s easy now that I understand how it works,” Soonyoung commented, pointing at the screens after he had typed something in. The screens on the computers were no longer blank, but they were flashing simple words such as ‘hello,’ and while the other four did not quite understand what was exciting about it, they nodded and smiled, making Soonyoung jump out of his chair and clap. “See, isn’t it cool? I know it doesn’t look cool, but it’ll come in handy some day!”

“So, how did you electrocute yourself?” Junhui asked.

“If you leave the words on the screen for too long, the keyboard starts to build up energy. I dunno.” Soonyoung clicked the computers off and pushed the chair back underneath the desk.

A year later, the five friends were at the park on the same day as last year when Soonyoung had shown them the flashing words, November 24th. Seungcheol had asked them to accompany him at the park, since his mother wanted him to get outside more, and he did not want to go alone. They had all gotten permission from their parents to tag along, so they rode their bicycles to the park on the street beside Minghao’s house.

The park had a playground that contained a yellow slide and monkey bars, and there was a sandbox in the shape of a turtle underneath a tree in the middle of the area. The park was nothing special, especially since everything except for the current objects had been torn down two years ago, but it was the closest to where the five lived, so they made it their official hangout whenever they were bored, for nobody was ever there.

“We need to build a clubhouse,” Soonyoung hummed.

Junhui blinked. “What? Why?”

“Every group of friends has a clubhouse, dumbass,” Seungcheol chimed. “We can steal sand from the sandbox and use it as flooring.”

“Then, how do we build it?” asked Minghao, looking around. There was no wood around unless they somehow chopped down a tree, no spare concrete blocks laying around, and no bricks dumped on the side of the road. “There’s nothing.”

“Easy, we get our parents to do it for us,” Seungcheol answered.

Wonwoo frowned. “That’s no fun.”

Seungcheol was about to respond, but Minghao spoke before he could, pointing toward the turtle sandbox. “Hey, who’s that?”

A boy, seemingly close to their ages, was sitting in the middle of the sandbox, innocently using a blue toy shovel to scoop up sand and pour it back in. He seemed to be alone, for no parents were in sight, excluding the adults that were on the road near the park.

Soonyoung shrugged and grinned, skipping over to the boy, the others rushing after him. Upon reaching the boy, he asked, “Hey, who are you?”

The boy, startled, dropped his toy shovel and widened his eyes. When he saw that Soonyoung and the others were children like him, he murmured, “Jisoo,” and turned his attention back to the sand quickly afterward.

“Where are your parents?” Seungcheol asked.

Jisoo shook his head. “They said they were going to the store. They just dropped me off here.”

“Will they be back?”

“I hope.”

Before Seungcheol could question him further, Minghao spoke over him once more. “Wanna help us build a clubhouse?”

Jisoo glanced around the park and stuck his hand in the sand. “There’s nothing to build an actual one with. I’m gonna build one with sand.”

Soonyoung smiled and plopped down next to him, sticking his hand in the sand as well. “We’ll help!”

Jisoo watched as the rest followed in Soonyoung’s footsteps, sitting down in the sand, the sandbox becoming cramped because of how many people were sitting inside of it, so Minghao ended up sitting on the ground beside the sandbox, but he did not mind. Jisoo used his toy shovel to collect piles of sand as the others aided him in sculpting the sand-made clubhouse. They spent an hour making it, thirty minutes of the time rebuilding it because Wonwoo had accidentally knocked it over, but in the end, the sand-made clubhouse was small, but well made, with two windows on each side and a door that were made by Junhui poking his finger into the sand.

“Hey, it’s cute!” laughed Soonyoung, smiling. “Let’s come back tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll still be here.”

“Yeah, and I think it’s going to rain. We should get going.” Seungcheol looked up at the dark sky.

Seungcheol caught Jisoo’s pain stricken face and offered, “Hey, come spend the night with me. We’ll find your parents in the morning, hm?”

Jisoo grabbed his toy shovel and stood, brushing the sand off of his jeans before nodding gratefully, following Seungcheol to his house as the others left the park and rode home. The rain started to pour as soon as Minghao closed his front door, and he hoped that his friends would return home safely.

Jisoo’s parents never came back, and they never would.

That night, however, something happened during the storm outside of Junhui’s house.

It was almost midnight, and Junhui’s family was asleep, but just like every Saturday night, he was not. He was sitting in his living room watching a movie with the subtitles turned on and the volume turned off as to not wake the rest of his family. His living room was cozy. All of the furniture was maroon, there was a large television mounted on the wall directly in front of the couch, and the family tabby cat was kneading its bed that was placed in the corner of the room beside its food and water. A candle burned on the coffee table, filling the room with a pumpkin scent.

He was about to turn the television off and retire to his bedroom, but he heard a loud splash outside that was followed by a low but loud whimper. Any normal child of his age would run and inform their parents of the noise and probably be told that it was merely the wind, but he did the exact opposite. He ran to the front door, unlocked it, and flung it open to find a boy in front of his house on the wet ground.

He dashed outside without grabbing a coat first even though rain was thundering down, but his only goal was to help the boy. He almost slipped rushing down the stairs on the porch, and when his feet hit the concrete, he ran out into the middle of the road and swiftly helped the boy into his living room, forgetting the risks of doing so.

Junhui did not know whether the water on the boy’s face were tears or rain, but he assumed that they were tears. “What happened?”

The boy was reluctant to speak, and Junhui understood. He pursed his lips and gave a sympathetic look as he gently grabbed the boy’s hand, but the boy yanked his hand away, untrusting.

“You don’t have to talk,” whispered Junhui softly. “Not if you don’t want to. I’m trying to help, though.”

“What’s your name?” the boy requested, cradling his hand to his chest.

Junhui spoke gently. “Junhui. What’s yours?”

“…Mingyu.” He said it slowly as if he had forgotten.

Junhui smiled softly and stuck out a hand to Mingyu, and the offer was accepted. He helped him up off of the carpet of his living room, noticing the wet patch that had formed on it, for the boy was soaking wet from the rain.

“So, what happened?” Junhui asked as he lead Mingyu over to his couch, and while he was hesitant to sit down at first, he did.

“I don’t know.” Mingyu wiped his eyes with his sleeve that was already drenched.

Junhui cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“My parents just tossed me out of the car and into the road.”

“Why would they do that?” Junhui confusedly quizzed.

“I don’t know. I didn’t do anything.” Mingyu pointed to his left leg, and Junhui noticed that it was shaking. “I think I hurt my leg. It hurts.”

Junhui wanted to aid Mingyu, but there was not much that he could do, only being a child. He considered waking up his parents, but he did not want to startle the boy by suddenly hasting away and grabbing his parents, seeing as he was already unnerved.

“Can I see your leg? I can see what I can do,” Junhui offered.

Mingyu looked at him, frightened. “A-Alright.”

Junhui gently lifted up Mingyu’s left pant leg and stuck out his bottom lip sadly upon seeing that it was bruised greatly aside from it being bloody from a scrape, but it was not terrible. “It’s not bad, don’t worry!” Junhui comforted. “See? It’s just a bruise and a scrape. Does anything else hurt?”

“No… I don’t think so.” Mingyu yanked his leg away and rolled his pant leg back down.

“You can stay here tonight,” Junhui announced. “You can have my bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Instead of arguing, Mingyu just nodded shyly. Junhui gave a halfhearted smile and guided his new friend to his bedroom, waiting until he was asleep before pulling out a sleeping bag from his closet to sleep on.

Junhui’s room was simple but messy. The closet was neat, but the room had multiple objects scattered about the floor, one being a stuffed animal squirrel that he had gotten a few years ago for his birthday. Aside from the untidy floor, there was a desk in the corner with a box of pencils in the middle of it along with a stack of papers on the right side. At the foot of his bed was another table, smaller than the other but with nothing placed on it because everything that was meant to be on it was shoved underneath his bed.

In the morning, Junhui found Mingyu sitting next to him on the floor, and Mingyu explained that he was too scared to sleep alone on the bed. Junhui understood.

A few months later, the group of friends that had gotten more members since the time that they had gone to Soonyoung’s house to see what he had had to show them, were walking to the movie theater to see the new movie that everyone was chatting about.

“What’s the movie about?” Wonwoo asked, looking at the sign that was plastered on the door to the movie theater. The sign stated the times that movies were showing, and he found that they were twenty minutes early to the showing of the movie that the group wanted to watch.

“Uh, aliens, I think,” Seungcheol explained. “Everyone’s talking about it, so we have to watch it.”

“We’re twenty minutes early,” whined Minghao as he crossed his arms over his chest. “What are we supposed to do until then?”

“Get our tickets and go in, of course,” Seungcheol huffed. “We have to get good seats.”

The others followed Seungcheol inside, and they all paid for their tickets and hurried into the room that would be showing the movie that was supposedly about aliens. They took the front row, even though Mingyu did not want to, and silently waited for the movie to start playing. They, bored, watched through the previews of other movies while Jisoo and Soonyoung played a game of rock paper scissors to pass the time.

People filed in and took their seats to view the movie as well, but chaos started to ensue when a boy started yelling at someone behind the group of friends.

“You spilled your popcorn on me!” growled the boy, shaking popcorn out of his hair.

The other boy pouted. “I didn’t mean to! You bumped into me.”

Minghao, who was sitting in the middle of the others, whispered, “Hey, I recognize him.” He pointed to the boy who was screaming at the other about having popcorn poured on him. “I saw him at the store once.”

The boy pushed the remaining popcorn out of the other boy’s hands and ran out of the theater, ignoring the glances from other people that he was receiving. The other boy remained in the theater and sighed, turning around to see the group of friends staring at him.

“What?” asked the boy.

“Who was that? Who are you?” Minghao blurted, and the group of friends completely disregarded the fact that the movie was starting.

The boy rose a brow. “Why?”

“Curious.”

“I’m Jeonghan. That was Jihoon.” The boy stepped over the mess of popcorn on the floor. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to find my friend.”

Minghao glanced at his companions and shrugged as he stood and followed Jeonghan out of the theater, hearing a sigh from Seungcheol, most likely because they would miss the movie, but he followed anyway.

Jeonghan, once out of the theater, caught them following him and asked, “Why are you following me?”

Minghao repeated himself. “Curious.”

Jeonghan simply rolled his eyes and continued to search for Jihoon, the others helping him complete the task. They split up, Jisoo following Seungcheol because he did not want to be alone, and it did not take them long to find him with many people searching, and he was not in the most secretive place. Jisoo entered the bathroom and found him leaning up against the wall, seemingly annoyed.

“Uh, your friend is looking for you,” Jisoo explained awkwardly.

Jihoon dealt him a death stare. “He is.”

“Yes.”

“Jisoo hyung, did you find him?” Minghao’s voice rung out as he poked his head into the bathroom. “Oh, that’s good.”

Jihoon snorted. “How many people are looking for me?”

“Doesn’t matter. Will you please come on?” Minghao requested. “He wants to apologize.”

Jihoon chewed on his lip and walked out of the bathroom, pushing past Jisoo and Minghao as he did so, finding Jeonghan waiting for him outside of the movie theater with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

“Uh, sorry.” Jeonghan pulled a rock out of his pocket and handed it to Jihoon as soon as he walked over. “Here’s a rock.”

“Why the hell would I want a rock?”

“You collect them.”

Jihoon tossed it onto the ground. “When I was like, nine. Anyway, it’s fine, it’s just popcorn. Would’ve killed you if it was soda.”

“Gee, thanks.” Jeonghan turned to the others, who were waiting for the two to speak to them. “The movie barely started. Wanna watch the rest of it with us then get something to eat?”

“That sounds fun,” Seungcheol responded and nodded, following the two back into the theater, and the others followed after hesitating slightly.

Another year and a few months later, Jihoon stood on top of a table in front of the others, who were sitting on the floor in Wonwoo’s living room.

“Alright, fuckers,” Jihoon said loudly. “We need to find the bitches who stole my lunch money.”

“How do we do that?” Jisoo questioned.

“They’re always at the park that costs money to get into, those rich assholes,” Jihoon explained sourly. “They’ll be there.”

“That costs money,” objected Seungcheol.

“Which is why we catch them before they enter. There’s always a certain time that they go.”

Wonwoo blinked. “Have you been stalking them?”

“I want my lunch money back.”

“Okay. When do they go?”

Jihoon checked the clock on the wall. “Ten minutes. Let’s go.”

Mingyu helped him off of the table, for he almost fell off of it the last time that he had stood on it to deliver a speech, then joined the others. They rushed outside and did not have to do much to arrive at the park, for the park that they were going to catch the so-called rich assholes at was only a few blocks away from Wonwoo’s house, so they simply walked.

Jihoon ducked behind one of the bushes in the row of bushes that was beside the sidewalk, and the others played along, earning odd looks from adults in the process.

“There they are, walking to the park,” Jihoon mumbled, pointing a finger at three boys on the opposite side of the road.

Jisoo rose a brow. “Are you sure they stole it? They look too nice.”

“I dropped the money by accident, and when I looked back, one of them was picking it up.”

Jisoo pursed his lips. “Why didn’t you just ask for it back?”

“That’s no fun. Come on, before they enter the park.”

Jisoo rolled his eyes, but Jihoon did not notice. He jumped out from behind the bush and crossed the road, a car nearly smashing into him, and the others followed, being a bit more careful on the road than their friend.

“Hey!” Jihoon greeted rudely. “Which one of you assholes stole my lunch money?”

The three turned to face him with widened eyes. The boy who was standing in the middle of them answered, “None of us stole anything.”

Jisoo hesitantly grabbed Jihoon’s shoulder. “See? They didn’t steal anything, let’s go—”

“Oh, no!” Jihoon waved his hand at Jisoo, and Jisoo hid behind Seungcheol, wanting no part in the argument. “All I want is to be paid back.”

“We didn’t steal anything,” the boy repeated, attempting to snake around Jihoon.

Jihoon stopped him. “Nice try.”

“Are you talking about the money I picked up off of the ground the other day at lunch?” one of the three asked softly. “I thought it was mine. I dropped mine too. Sorry, here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the same amount of money that he had snatched up off of the ground a week ago at lunch. Jihoon huffed and snatched it from his hand.

Jisoo noticed the scowl on Jihoon’s face and shoved past him, smiling at the three. “Excuse our friend. Who are you?”

“I’m Seungkwan. That’s Hansol and Chan,” the boy in the middle of the three informed him.

“Sorry about the money,” Hansol said with a frown.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jihoon mocked in a high-pitched voice which caused Jisoo to sigh heavily.

Seungkwan then offered, “Would you like to come to the park with us? We’ll pay your way in.”

“All of us?” Seungcheol asked, blinking. “You don’t have to.”

“It’s the least we can do,” Hansol said. “Since I angered you for the lunch money.”

“True,” Jihoon said with a nod as Jisoo slapped his arm.

Seungkwan trudged up to the guard who watched over the park and collected the money, and he, with help from Hansol and Chan, paid the others’ way in. The guard opened the gate and closed it behind him.

The park, the others found out upon entering, was well worth the money. There was three sections to the park; children, adults, and pets. There was a playground with several toys, slides, swing sets, a set of monkey bars, and a tiny treehouse that loomed over a sandbox in the children section. In the adults section was nothing but many benches and tables to sit down at and chat with people or just enjoy some time alone reading a book. The pets section was closed off by a higher fence than the rest of the park so that the pets would not suddenly jump away. Dog toys were scattered about the grass in that section, and training toys were on the sides. A fountain that was surrounded by bushes was in the middle of the park.

“Whoa!” Soonyoung exclaimed.

“It’s pretty cool,” Chan agreed, speaking for the first time. “We like it here. Where do you all go for fun?”

“The other park,” Minghao explained softly. “The park with nothing in it. It’s cool because no one is ever there.”

“Well, come here more often,” Seungkwan said and began to walk over to the children section of the park. “It’s fun here.”

“Will do.” Jisoo smiled and nodded while Jihoon muttered something underneath his breath.

A week later, the twelve of them went to a restaurant that was famous for its tasty pancakes to find only one other person in the restaurant when they arrived.

“Meal’s on me,” Seungkwan hummed and sat down at one of the table as the others sat down as well.

Jeonghan shook his head. “You don’t have to do this for us.”

Seungkwan was already pulling won out of his pocket and motioning one of the waiters over. “Twenty four pancakes, please,” he ordered as the waiter nodded and ushered away. “Also, I don’t have to, but I want to.”

Several minutes later, multiple plates of pancakes that added up to twenty four was placed on the table, and they each received two pancakes.

“I’ll get us forks,” Chan announced and stood. He walked to the front counter to grab twelve forks but stopped when he overheard the conversation between the only other person in the restaurant, a young boy like them, and one of the workers.

“Sorry, you just don’t have enough for a pancake,” the woman sighed and returned to work, leaving the sad boy alone.

Chan, already carrying twelve forks, grabbed another one and hurried over to the boy and handed him a fork. “Two pancakes, please,” he requested of the woman and handed her the won that the boy apparently did not have.

The woman looked at the money then back at the two of them and nodded, bringing a plate of two pancakes to them. The boy gaped at Chan as Chan just grinned.

“You really didn’t have to do that,” the boy murmured.

“Yes, I did.” Chan grabbed the plate and pointed to his friends with the hand that was holding the remaining forks. “Would you like to join us, uh…?”

“Seokmin.” The boy squeezed the fork. “Sure, I would enjoy that.”

Chan nodded and walked over to the table that his friends was sitting at and distributed the forks to each of them, noticing that they were all looking at Seokmin.

“Hello, who are you?” Seungcheol asked.

“Seokmin.” Seokmin sat down next to Chan hesitantly and slowly poured syrup onto the pancakes that had been ordered for him.

“Nice to meet you,” Jisoo greeted and grinned.

Minghao, with his mouth full, asked, “So, thirteen of us now?”

Jihoon pushed Minghao’s head away from him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, dumbass.”

“Sorry, hyung.”

“It’s a good number,” Junhui said with a shrug as he stabbed his pancakes. The others agreed.

Seungcheol then inquired of Seokmin, “So, why are you here alone?”

“It’s actually my birthday. I always come here with my mother on my birthday, but since she passed away a month ago, I came alone.” Seokmin wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

Chan placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry about your mother. Happy birthday.”

The others said that they were sorry as well and bid him happy birthday, and Seungkwan suggested that they tell the waiter that it was Seokmin’s birthday so that he could receive a free birthday cake.

“I never knew that they give people free cakes on their birthdays.” Seokmin licked syrup off of his fork.

“Oh, yeah,” Hansol laughed. “Every food place does it.”

“Hey, it’s our friend’s birthday,” Jeonghan said to a waiter as he was passing by them, and he nodded, smiled, told him happy birthday, and sprinted away to bring a birthday cake back.

Thirty minutes later, the waiter returned with a small birthday cake in his arms, setting it down on the table in front of Seokmin. The birthday cake had a single candle in the middle that said the word birthday on it, and the others could tell by the brown color that it was chocolate.

Seokmin was about to blow the candle out when Minghao said, “Don’t forget to make a wish!”

Seokmin closed his eyes and pondered for a moment before blowing the candle out.

Two years passed, and the thirteen had bonded everyday. On November 24th, the same day that Soonyoung had shown Wonwoo, Junhui, Seungcheol, and Minghao what he had learned on his computer, Jihoon walked into his kitchen to find Chan stuffing a turkey into the microwave with the others watching.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jihoon sighed.

Chan pushed on the door of the microwave, trying to close the turkey in. “You told us to prepare turkey for dinner.”

“This isn’t… Why did you all let him do this?”

Seungcheol snickered. “It was funny. Chan, use the oven.”

Chan blinked. “Oh,” he replied and blushed, yanking the turkey out of the microwave and placing it on top of the oven. “There.”

Jihoon rubbed his forehead. “What the fuck, Chan?”

“Seungcheol hyung said—”

“Inside of the oven, Chan. Inside.”

Chan blinked again, opened the oven, and threw the turkey inside. “Now what?”

Jisoo read the instructions from a website on his phone and glanced up. “Uh, I guess three hundred and fifty degrees.”

Chan set the oven at six hundred.

“Chan, I said three hundred and fifty.”

Chan pouted. “Won’t this cook it faster?”

“No, Chan, that’s not… No, what?”

Jihoon left the room after announcing that he was fetching a fire extinguisher, making all of them laugh loudly, even Chan.

There was thirteen of them standing in Jihoon’s house on November 24th, a few years after Soonyoung had shown Wonwoo, Junhui, Seungcheol, and Minghao his new computer trick.

Seungcheol, the distinguished leader of the friend group, was attempting to fix the mess that Chan had created. Jeonghan, the one who had spilt popcorn on Jihoon one day, was tagging along with Jihoon to find a fire extinguisher, just in case. Jisoo, the boy who had been abandoned by his parents and was now afraid of being alone, was informing Chan on the proper way to cook a turkey. Junhui, the kind boy who would do anything to help his friends, was playing rock paper scissors with Minghao. Soonyoung, the ecstatic computer nerd who never frowned, was telling Wonwoo about a new game that he had downloaded onto his computer. Wonwoo, the usual quiet but nonetheless happy boy, suggested that he and Soonyoung play the game together sometime. Jihoon, the one who was not afraid to speak his mind with a few swear words involved, finally found a fire extinguisher. Seokmin, the poor boy whose mother had passed away, was watching the turkey properly cook inside of the oven. Mingyu, the soft boy who had been thrown out onto the road by his parents and had been saved by Junhui, was working on a crossword puzzle silently. Minghao, the young boy who had been innocently drawing on November 24th, was drawing the same picture that he had been doodling on that day. Seungkwan, the rich but always kind rich kid, was talking to Hansol about the park. Hansol, the boy who had stolen Jihoon’s lunch money without realizing but had paid it back, agreed with his friend when he said that the park was becoming more expensive. Lastly, Chan, the sweet and young boy that did not know how to cook a turkey, was telling Jisoo that he understood how to cook one now.

However, Soonyoung would become the only one out of the group of friends to remember everything about all of them many years later.


	2. day one

A twenty-one year old Kwon Soonyoung sat in a dark and cramped room, eyes glued to his computer screen.

He pressed a button, typed something in, and watched as flashing words popped up onto the screen. He typed ‘ _to: citizen 4367_ ’ into the system, and another tab opened that read ‘ _what would you like to say?’_

He began to type faster than he had ever typed before.

**hello.**

**i don’t have much time, so you’ll have to drill this into your head. you’ll think that this is a dream when you wake, but it’s not. listen to me, minghao.**

**it’s november 24th.**

**the government collapsed years ago. you don’t know what the government is. you only know the elite.**

**there were riots and everything. all crime was legal. the government wasn’t there to stop it. nobody was there.**

**then, the elite emerged. the elite recruited anyone rich, from billionaires to business owners. their memories were wiped. everyone’s memories were wiped.**

**i escaped. i can’t say how yet, but everything i’m saying is true.**

**trust only twelve other people, including me. you’ll know who those twelve are. you’ll know.**

**i have to go. they’re on their way to kill me.**

**goodbye, minghao.**

Soonyoung’s computer sparked and exploded, causing his arms to fly up to his face in order to protect himself. The door to his hideout burst open for the first time in years.

**Hello.**

**This is The Elite.**

**The source of the hack has been located and eliminated.**

**Carry on with your daily activities, Citizen 4367.**

**Reminder that a violation of the rules will result in your elimination.**

Minghao’s eyes flew open at exactly five in the morning, the exact time that he woke up everyday. His breathing was heavy, and the soft breeze that rustled his curtains did not calm his nerves in the slightest.

He remembered the dream that he had just had. Somebody had contacted him through the same computer that everyone had been issued awhile back that sat in the corner of every room and was used only for certain purposes. He did not understand the dream. He did not know what the government was, he did not know what the word kill meant, he had never heard of the word riot, and he did not understand the concept of trust.

After pondering for a good five minutes, he decided to forget about the matter, for if he told someone else or someone found out that he had such an odd dream, he would definitely be eliminated. He inhaled sharply and walked to his closet that was filled with white clothes, tugging on his usual outfit for work before grabbing a bagel for breakfast, the same food that he had everyday for breakfast.

He hurried out of his unit and was driven to work by a silent driver. He bid the driver goodbye politely and received nothing in response, just as everyday.

He entered his work building through the sliding doors and sat down in his usual spot as his coworker, Seokmin, handed him a stack of papers. “The boss told me to work on these with you,” he explained and pulled a chair up next to him to sit down.

“Alright, thank you,” Minghao answered with a nod. He found that the papers were reports of crimes that had taken place in the last month, and there was not much, thankfully. “What does the boss want us to do?”

“Read over them and decide whether or not the crimes are elimination worthy. Sometimes people report people for no reason.”

Minghao rose a brow. “I thought that The Elite is the only person who is able to decide.”

Seokmin pursed his lips. “Never talk about The Elite behind his back. The boss told us to do this, so we must.”

Minghao flinched at the seriousness in Seokmin’s voice and nodded, picking up the first paper. “Alright.”

Seokmin moved on from the subject. “How did you sleep?”

Minghao considered telling Seokmin the truth. He considered telling him that he had had a dream about someone telling him that practically everything that he knew was not true. He considered telling him that he was now beginning to doubt The Elite, but in the end, he lied straight through his teeth. “I slept fine, thank you.”

Seokmin nodded with a blank expression. “That’s good. Do you think that this is elimination worthy?” he inquired as he handed Minghao one of the papers.

He scanned over the text and found that someone had stolen an apple because they did not have enough food ration left to eat well. “You are not supposed to steal things,” Minghao murmured and handed the paper back to his coworker. Seokmin nodded and stamped the paper, setting it aside.

Minghao continued to examine the papers, occasionally asking Seokmin about some of the crimes, most of the crimes involving stealing or a little bit of violence, in which he stamped the paper and set it aside on top of the pile.

He read over one of the papers and stopped, sweat beginning to form on his face.

**_NAME: Unknown_ **

**_CITIZEN NUMBER: Unknown_ **

**_CRIME: Hacking into The Elite’s computer system_ **

**_ELIMINATE?: YES or NO_ **

He quickly stamped the paper and set it aside.

~~**_NO_ ** ~~

“Are you alright?” asked a voice, but Minghao only heard it faintly.

He looked up to find another one of his coworkers, Mingyu, staring down at him confusedly.

“Could you repeat that?” Minghao requested and glanced up at Mingyu, earning a look from Seokmin, but he continued to leaf through the papers instead of listening to their conversation.

“I asked,” Mingyu repeated, “if you’re alright.”

“I’m alright, thank you,” Minghao lied. He noticed that Seokmin was reading the last of the papers, and he quickly stamped it and set it aside. “We just finished what we were assigned.”

“There may be more. I’ll be back.” Seokmin stood and trudged away without another word, most likely on his way to find their boss and ask what else that he would like them to complete.

“How did you sleep?” questioned Mingyu politely.

Minghao was tempted to give the same answer that he had given Seokmin, but upon seeing the soft eyes that he was being given, he answered, “I didn’t sleep very well, but it’s fine. Just a small headache. Thank you.”

“You should visit the doctor,” Mingyu suggested.

“I will. Thank you.”

Mingyu nodded and scurried away to his own working cubicle, setting to work immediately. Seokmin descended the stairs with a stack of papers in his hands, and him and Minghao scanned over them, stamping the yes or no options where it was due. The crimes that seemed too silly to even bother with were thrown into the shredder, never to be seen again.

Three and a half hours later, the main security guard, Jeonghan, burst into the doors of the building, looking panicked.

Minghao turned in his seat as Jeonghan rushed over to him and Seokmin. “Have you two noticed anything unusual?”

Seokmin shook his head and returned to the task of reading and stamping, but Minghao asked, “Why, what happened?”

“Three rebels got away again. Have you seen them, by any chance? They used to work with you.”

Minghao shook his head. “I’ll keep a look out. What are their names again?”

“Seungcheol, Wonwoo, and Junhui.”

Minghao nodded. “Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Jeonghan nodded in reply and thanked him, sprinting over to Mingyu and questioning him, questioning all of the other people who worked at the business afterward. Minghao vaguely remembered Seungcheol, Wonwoo, and Junhui; Seungcheol had been his coworker that had seemed odd from the beginning, Wonwoo had been quiet and only had spoke to Seungcheol, and Junhui had always seemed off to him. The three had only spoken to each other, from what Minghao knew, and now they were going against The Elite. They would be eliminated if they were caught, and Minghao wondered what would happen if he rebelled, too.

“I’ll go get another stack,” Seokmin announced, drawing Minghao out of his thoughts.

Minghao simply nodded and eyed him as he walked off.

During lunch, instead of having his usual sandwich, he rode to the doctor’s office, thanking the driver as usual before they sped away.

“State your number,” a microphone on the doors to the building demanded.

“Four thousand three hundred sixty-seven,” Minghao stated clearly.

“State what is the matter.”

Minghao bit his lip. “Headache. Uneasiness.”

The microphone went silent for a second, and a beep was heard quickly afterward. “You may see the pill distributer.”

The door opened as one of the doctors, his name tag reading Jisoo, opened the door and motioned Minghao inside. Minghao obeyed and followed the doctor to his office, sitting down on top of the table.

“Hello,” the doctor greeted. “My name is Jisoo. You have a headache followed by uneasiness, correct?”

“Correct.”

Jisoo hummed as he opened one of the cabinets on the wall and grabbed a pill bottle. He poured one of the pills onto the palm of his hand and set the bottle back into the cabinet. He handed Minghao the pill, which was orange, and poured water into a cup to help him swallow the pill. “This is for the headache.”

“Thank you.” Minghao swallowed the pill with the help of the water, silently hoping that the pill would not harm him, for he had no headache.

“You mentioned that you had uneasiness. What do you feel uneasy about?”

Minghao began to stall by drinking the water, but Jisoo caught on quickly.

“You don’t know, do you?”

Minghao nearly choked on the water, but Jisoo snatched the glass of the water from him and pat his back.

“No,” Minghao spluttered. “I don’t know.”

Jisoo pursed his lips and suddenly drew the curtains and slammed the door shut, locking it. He took the remaining water that was in the glass and splashed it onto the camera that had been set up in the corner of the office, watching as it sparked and shut off.

“Do you doubt The Elite, too?” Jisoo inquired hopefully, noticing Minghao recoiling into the chair. “Why else would you feel uneasy?”

Minghao blinked. “Yes, but I don’t want to be eliminated. We should just forget about this.”

“You’re the only person who dislikes The Elite that I know of. There has to be more people.” Jisoo kept an eye on the camera that was bound to switch back on eventually.

Minghao sat back up straight in the chair. “Even if I did help you, who else dislikes The Elite?”

“We can find them. I know we can, we just—”

“I had a dream,” Minghao revealed and sucked in a deep breath.

Jisoo stared at him with wide, bright eyes.

Minghao explained the dream swiftly, watching the camera along with Jisoo, preparing himself for when it would turn back on. When he was finished explaining the dream, Jisoo nodded solemnly.

“There’s eleven others, not counting the hacker,” he recounted, “who doubts The Elite?”

“Ten. I found you.” Minghao rubbed the back of his head, a real headache forming. “I guess so. The hacker said that when I find them, I’ll know. I just don’t…”

_A young boy, startled, dropped his toy shovel into the sand and widened his eyes upon seeing people standing over him. When he saw that they were children like him, he murmured, “Jisoo,” and turned his attention back to the sand quickly afterward._

Minghao’s head burst with pain, and he whimpered, holding his head in his hands in an attempt to numb the pain.

Jisoo reached out and instinctively grabbed Minghao’s hand. “What’s the matter?”

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Minghao whispered and left the room without allowing Jisoo to reply, rushing out of the building, slowing his pace slightly as to not raise the suspicions of others.

The camera clicked back on as soon as he left.

Minghao took the same ride back to his work building, and the usual happened; he thanked the driver and received nothing in reply, just the dust that was kicked up from the squealing tires.

He noticed Jeonghan standing in front of the door to the building, looking just as uneasy as him.

He decided to try it.

Minghao ushered over to Jeonghan, eyeing the camera that would monitor their whole conversation, hoping that he would be able to get his point across without revealing too much in front of the camera. He had no water to throw at the camera to force it to lose power for a few minutes, and he had no way of simply shutting it off, but he had to try even if Jeonghan was not one of the remaining ten.

“Did you find out information on the three rebels?” Jeonghan quizzed and tapped his foot.

Minghao decided to quiz him as well. “Why do you want to find the rebels yourself? I’m sure other guards are searching. They probably left this area by now…”

Jeonghan opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as if he was contemplating what exactly to say, but he finally responded. “I am just doing my job. You should not question someone with a higher job than yourself. You might be eliminated.”

Minghao inhaled deeply and bravely replied, “Is that what you were going to say?”

Jeonghan suddenly grabbed Minghao’s shirt and yanked him to the right side of him and turned, shielding him from the camera using his body. “Excuse me, but what do you know?”

“You doubt The Elite. Why are you looking for the rebels?”

“I want to find them and ask what they know, but they always run when they see me because I’m a guard.”

Minghao chewed on his tongue and hesitantly whispered, “I’ll help you look tonight when it’s dark.”

_“You spilled your popcorn on me!” growled a young boy at his friend, shaking popcorn out of his hair._

Minghao rubbed his head and pushed past Jeonghan. “Meet me here tonight. I have to go.”

Jeonghan understood and nodded, not looking at the camera and returning to his usual duty as if he had not had a conversation about doubting The Elite.

Minghao found Seokmin eating a sandwich at his desk, writing something down on a piece of paper. He approached his coworker and asked, “Lunch isn’t over?”

“It will be in five minutes. Did you eat?” Seokmin finished his sandwich and tossed the wrapping that it had come in into the trash bin beside his desk.

“I’m not hungry,” he admitted.

“That’s not good. Did you see the doctor?”

“It’s just a headache. Don’t worry about it.” The conversation ended, for socializing too long was deemed suspicious by The Elite.

Minghao sat down at his own desk and continued to work until six in the evening, the time that everyone in the building’s work was finished until the next day. He rode to the laundry mat after gathering up all of his clothes as he did every Tuesday, for white clothes became dirty quite easily. He thanked the driver and entered the laundry mat, following the instructions on how to wash white clothes that was plastered on a piece of paper on the wall at every washing machine.

“Hello,” a voice beside him mumbled, and he turned to see his boss, Jihoon, stuffing his clothes into the machine next to him. “How was work?”

“It was fine, thank you.” Minghao sat on the bench that was in front of every washing machine, watching the clothes spin around inside of the machine.

Jihoon sat down as well and looked at Minghao. “I forgot to tell you that two members of The Elite wanted to see you, but you were busy, so they would like to see you tomorrow.”

Minghao’s breath hitched in his voice. “Why would they like to see me?”

“Personal reasons,” Jihoon informed him briefly. Minghao expected him to say more, but he did not and picked his clothes up when they were dry and walked out of the laundry mat, not giving the younger another look.

Members of The Elite never requested to privately speak with someone; they were just eliminated if they had committed an awful enough crime. Minghao just told himself that he would make the meeting short and tell them whatever they wanted to hear and sprint out, because if he was to be eliminated, they would carry out the task without speaking to him about the matter first. They did not wish to eliminate him.

A few hours later when it was dark outside, Minghao met Jeonghan outside of the building, just as they had discussed.

“They will not eliminate me for being out after curfew, since I’m a guard,” Jeonghan explained. “If anything happens, pretend that I’m questioning you about the rebels.”

“Alright,” Minghao agreed. “How do we find them? Aren’t they in hiding?”

“Well, yeah.” Jeonghan grabbed Minghao’s hand protectively and started toward a store that had been closed an hour prior. “I don’t know where they’re hiding, but I know that one of them sneaks into the food store every Tuesday night.”

Minghao said no more and stuck close to Jeonghan, following him to the store, being dragged behind him at times because he changed his pace frequently. Minghao almost fell down in the middle of the road while crossing to arrive at the food store, but Jeonghan ended up picking him up into his arms bridal style and carrying him across the road.

“Hey, put me down!” protested Minghao, slapping Jeonghan’s arm.

“Hush!” Jeonghan huffed and set him down, fishing around in his pockets for the keys to the food store. “You were too slow. We have to hurry, you know. This is dangerous.”

Minghao pouted and rubbed his arms as he entered the food store, the store surprisingly chilly at night. He looked around in the dark and was about to ask about a light, but a lightbulb overhead flashed on, thanks to Jeonghan flicking the light switch on.

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” Minghao whispered. “Aren’t the cameras on?”

“The camera was broken last week, thanks to one of the rebels, so I guard it at night. No worries.” Jeonghan grabbed a candy bar and stuffed it into his pocket. “I get extra food rations for it, so it’s fine. We—”

The front door swung open and someone entered the store, eyes widening upon noticing that the lights were on, the doors were unlocked, and two people, one being the main security guard, were staring straight at him with their mouths wide open. He turned and ran.

“Wait!” Minghao called, starting after him, being grabbed by Jeonghan.

“Hop onto my back,” Jeonghan demanded quickly.

“What—”

“Do it!”

Minghao closed his mouth and climbed onto the older boy’s back, hanging onto him like a distressed koala, closing his eyes when Jeonghan began to run after the rebel in fear of being dropped. He soon realized that Jeonghan’s idea had been a good one, for the security guard was faster than he was, even with a frightened person clinging onto him for dear life.

The rebel looked over his shoulder and still did not realize that the two were not trying to catch him to eliminate him, but the thought of elimination made him run faster down the street. He did not want to be caught and fail the other two, he did not want the other two to be found thanks to him—

He ran straight into a pole when he looked forward again, allowing Jeonghan and Minghao to catch up.

Minghao hopped off of Jeonghan’s back with a small stumble, and he bent down and stuck out a hand. “Uh, are you okay?”

The rebel narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to report me.”

“No,” Minghao responded simply and waved his hand, expecting the boy to grab ahold of it.

The rebel eyed his hand wearily. “Why?” he asked softly as he pointed to Jeonghan. “He’s a security guard. He’s employed to report me.”

“We can’t stay out here any longer,” Jeonghan urged.

Minghao grabbed the rebel’s hand himself and pulled him up off the ground, ignoring the huff of discomfort that had been attempted to be stifled. “We dislike The Elite just as much as you do. You’ll have to believe us.”

The rebel began to play with his fingers, his eyes darting to one of the cameras as it flashed, signaling that someone on the other end had snapped a picture. His breathing sped up. “Fine, but if—”

“We’ll leave you alone afterward, if you would like us to. We just—”

_“I’m Wonwoo,” a boy in a red shirt revealed shyly, playing with his fingers as he spoke._

Minghao placed a finger on his temple and breathed heavily before finishing his sentence. “We just want to talk to you and your friends.”

The rebel nodded and took each of their hands in his and began to rush away from the street and the cameras, turning sharply down a path into a mess of trees that was forbidden to enter by The Elite. Minghao grasped onto the boy’s hand tighter upon entering the forbidden woods, for he had never been in the mysterious place, and it was eerie to him. There were no cameras in the woods except for a single one that was mounted in a tree, but someone had secretly broken it weeks ago, and it was never replaced.

“We have a hideout hidden deep in these woods,” explained the rebel. “It’s underground. Come on, over there.”

He led the two over to a spot underneath a giant tree and bent down, opening a hatch that was built into the ground that would guide them to the rebels’ bunker. The three jumped down without trouble and followed the rebel through the tunnel and to the main room of the bunker where his two friends were sitting.

The main room of the bunker was, to be expected, not fancy. In the corner sat a loveseat that had holes in it, and in the other corner was three gray chairs, one for each of the three rebels. There was a table that had been pushed up against the wall, and a computer sat on top of it; where the rebels had gotten electricity, Minghao did not know, but he assumed that they had somehow stolen materials from The Elite to arrive at the point that they were now at.

One of the rebels inhaled deeply and stood. “Wonwoo—”

“They just want to talk,” Wonwoo pleaded. “They might be able to help us. They think The Elite is up to something, too.”

The rebel sat once more and glared at Minghao and Jeonghan. “What’s your citizen number?” he questioned Minghao as Wonwoo pulled a chair over to the table that held the computer.

“Um, four thousand three hundred sixty-seven.”

“Xu Minghao,” Wonwoo announced after typing on the keyboard. “He works at the center building. Never done anything wrong in his life.”

Minghao stared at him.

“I mean, until now.” Wonwoo looked at his other two friends. “Well?”

“I’m Junhui,” said the rebel who had previously been quiet. He nudged his companion to speak next.

“Seungcheol.” He stuck his tongue out while thinking for a moment. “Alright, what do you know?”

“I…” Minghao paused and studied the room before continuing. “I had this dream,” he admitted before explaining the dream in detail, earning odd glances when he finished.

“That’s pretty much all we know,” Junhui sighed. “The government collapsed, The Elite took over, and memories were wiped.”

Jeonghan stood next to Wonwoo and looked at the computer screen. “How did you find that out?”

Wonwoo snorted. “I hacked into The Elite’s database after months of attempting. I was kicked off quickly, though, so we didn’t find out much. We’ve been trying to find out how to get our memories back completely, but… No luck. We only have bits and pieces.”

Jeonghan seemed impressed. “Where did you learn to hack?”

Wonwoo frowned and tapped on the desk with his finger. “I don’t know. I think… I think that someone showed me how to long ago, and I just picked it up again.”

“Yeah, that’s Wonwoo, our hacker,” Seungcheol laughed and poked Junhui’s cheek. “Junhui is our spy. He usually goes on supply runs for us, but he’s been sick, I guess? He keeps coughing up blood.”

“I know someone who may be able to help,” Minghao said. “He dislikes The Elite, too. He’s one of the doctors.”

Jeonghan placed a hand on Minghao’s shoulder gently. “Who? Jisoo?”

“Yes.”

Jeonghan went silent and removed his hand, biting into one of his nails nervously. “He was taken into custody yesterday for violation of the rules.”

Minghao’s heart skipped a beat. He realized that The Elite could have seen Jisoo throw the water onto the camera before it had shut down momentarily, and he felt foolish for not saying something before he had left. “We have to save him!”

“In the morning,” Seungcheol ordered, crossing his legs. “You’ll never save him late at night after curfew. You won’t be able to go home for awhile, either. You can take my room tonight, Minghao. I’ll sleep in the chair.”

“You can have mine,” Wonwoo offered Jeonghan, looking up at him for just a second before returning to typing on the keyboard and examining computer files.

The two decided not to protest as Seungcheol stood and guided them to the bedrooms, the rooms consisting of a single bed and one, tiny table. Minghao caught sight of a small room that held cans and bags of food in it before he arrived in Seungcheol’s room, and he figured that the room was where supplies containing food were kept.

Minghao drifted off to sleep with his heart pounding in his chest, mentally telling himself that the three rebels were three more pieces that fit into puzzle.


	3. day two

Soonyoung did not know where he was.

For many years, he had remained in one simple spot, only leaving that simple spot to sneak around guards in order to snatch some supplies from the warehouse that The Elite had hidden from the public, and he finally did not recognize his surroundings.

He had awoken five minutes ago in a dark, musty room. He vaguely remembered his computer exploding and his door being forced open, and he assumed that by hacking into The Elite’s system to send Minghao a message had allowed him to be tracked easily.

He knew that he would be caught, but he felt foolish. He should have been more careful, he should have snuck into Minghao’s sleeping unit himself and told him, he should have fought back. He had taken none of those precautions.

The room lit up, for a plate that was stuck to the wall flashed red, and a monotone voice began to speak through it. “Please enter your citizen number.” A keypad that consisted of only numbers popped up on the plate’s screen.

He had no citizen number, and even if he did, he would have not entered anything into the keypad anyway. After a minute of waiting, the plate went blank and flashed a dark crimson quickly afterward. “State your number,” the voice demanded firmly.

Another minute passed, and Soonyoung did not move a muscle. The whole room flashed a bloody red, and sparks of electricity flowed painfully into his arm, causing him to stumble and bring his arm up to his chest to cradle. He examined his arm and found that an electric bracelet that could only be unlocked with a certain key with had been wrapped around his wrist.

“State your number.”

Soonyoung tentatively walked to the plate and entered the only number that he knew. He tapped the keypad and entered four numbers.

**4367**

The room darkened once again with the only light being the flashing red from the plate. A screen that had the words yes and no printed on it appeared. “Xu Minghao. Is that your name?”

Soonyoung tapped on the screen.

~~**YES** ~~

The room was silent again for thirty seconds until the voice interrupted the silence for the last time. “Lee Chan will be with you shortly.”

Soonyoung slammed his fist against the metal wall of the cell, creating a loud noise, and he hoped that Minghao had understood his messages that he had sent before he had been captured.

Minghao had understood.

He awoke in an empty room and panicked for a second before he realized that he was in Seungcheol’s room inside of the rebels’ bunker because of the events that had taken place the night before. He had slept peacefully without another dream, thankfully, but his whole world was a nightmare as soon as opened his eyes.

“Good morning,” a voice hummed beside him. He realized that the someone’s fingers were running through his hair gently, and he glanced up to find that the hand and voice belonged to Jeonghan.

“What are you doing?” Minghao questioned but did not stop Jeonghan from caressing his hair.

“You seemed distressed.” Jeonghan blinked softly. “Did you have another dream?”

“No?” Minghao sat up and felt stiff. “I didn’t dream at all.”

Jeonghan gave a sympathetic smile. “Well, you had this look on your face while you were sleeping.”

Minghao sighed. “Why are you awake?”

“I’ve been awake. Junhui won’t stop coughing. The others are saying his condition is getting worse.” Jeonghan sounded genuinely concerned despite not knowing much about him or the others. “Wonwoo is working on finding a map around The Elite’s building.”

“Any luck?”

Jeonghan frowned. “Not much. He can’t get back into The Elite’s database.” He grabbed Minghao’s hand and dragged him out of bed, ignoring his protests. “Come on, they have good cereal.”

Minghao followed closely behind Jeonghan to the main room of the bunker to find Wonwoo typing on his keyboard and occasionally becoming angry and slamming his fist onto the table. He heard terrible coughs from one of the bedrooms, and he assumed that the noises were coming from Junhui’s bedroom.

“Anything?” Jeonghan inquired.

“Every time you ask that,” Wonwoo huffed, “I lose a year of my life.”

Jeonghan sat down on one of the three chairs that were placed in the room since nobody was currently sitting in them before he pointed to a bowl of cereal that was sitting in the dirty loveseat. Minghao took the bowl into his hands and thanked him quietly before eating silently.

As Minghao set the empty bowl onto the ground, Wonwoo piped up for the first time in fifteen minutes. “They’ve upped their security since the last hack. I don’t think that I get in. We might have to go in blind.”

“I might know a secret entrance that only The Elite uses,” Jeonghan murmured. “I’ve only been to the building once. If you can hack into the code system, we can get in.”

Wonwoo shut his computer down with a scowl, angry at himself for not being able to hack into the database again. “It’s worth a shot.”

Seungcheol tapped on the wall as he entered the main room, signaling that he had overheard the conversation. “Whatever the plan is, I don’t think that Junhui can go. He’s sick, he can’t—”

“Yes, I can,” Junhui’s voice echoed behind him as he stumbled out of his room and held onto the wall for support, blood trickling down his chin. “I don’t wanna disappoint, I can—”

Seungcheol whipped around. “Junhui, I swear, I’m gonna beat your ass if you don’t go back to bed right now. You’re literally gonna die.”

“I’m f-fine,” Junhui coughed, weakly letting go of the wall and collapsing onto the floor, eyes shut but breathing labored.

Minghao stood up from the loveseat and rushed over. “What happened? Is he alright?”

“This happened earlier,” Seungcheol said, voice shaky. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. We need the doctor, but I need to stay here and look after Junhui, so it’s all up to you three.”

Wonwoo widened his eyes. “Without you? Or Junhui?”

“Yes.”

“We can’t… I can’t…

Seungcheol smiled and lifted an unconscious Junhui into his arms. “Yes, you can. You’ve gone on supply runs multiple times and came back each time. You’ll be fine.”

Seungcheol waited for a nod from Wonwoo, and when he received one, he whirled around on his heel and returned to Junhui’s room.

Wonwoo looked at Jeonghan and Minghao and took a deep breath. “Well, we’ll need supplies if we’re gonna do this correctly.”

“All we need to do for now is get Jisoo out of there,” said Jeonghan. “We leave after that and figure out our next move.”

“We find the remaining people and go from there,” Minghao suggested.

The two agreed as Wonwoo guided them both to the most secret room in the bunker, which was the weapon room. “We might have to fight to get him out of there,” explained Wonwoo, “but we want to be as stealthy as we can be.”

“Fight?” Minghao asked, allowing the word to slip off of his tongue without giving it a second thought.

“You know,” Wonwoo said along with an eyebrow raise, “violence?”

“I’ve never had to use violence.”

Wonwoo smirked and grabbed a tool off of the wall. “Of course you haven’t. This is a gun that shoots tranquilizer darts.” When he saw Minghao and Jeonghan’s confused looks, he explained the tool to where they could understand how it worked. “It makes people sleep for an hour. The Elite has one. I stole this one from them.”

As Wonwoo placed the tranquilizer gun into his belt, Jeonghan questioned, “Is that all we need?”

“It’s all that we should have if we want to be subtle about this. We sneak in, grab Minghao’s friend, rush out, nobody harmed.”

Minghao and Jeonghan nodded simultaneously. “I like this idea,” began Minghao, “but what if it doesn’t work?”

Wonwoo darkly placed his hand on the tranquilizer gun. “Let’s just hope it works. We need to save him before it’s too late, so we should get going.”

The three bid Seungcheol and Junhui goodbye, but Junhui told them not to say that. “Don’t say that,” Junhui wheezed, voice weak from the coughs. “You’ll be back. This isn’t goodbye.”

Jeonghan told them that the taxi drivers were dumb and never recognized or questioned anyone, so it would be safe for them to ask for a ride and be dropped off at the building closest to The Elite’s building, the library. Minghao expected the driver to say something about three people getting into the same taxi together since it was apparently suspicious to be with another person for too long, but the driver said nothing and drove them to their destination, giving them a nod when they told him goodbye.

The Elite’s building was, and no hyperbole, huge. It was unlike the other buildings, being the tallest and widest building that there was. It was a dark gray, the only other color being the white door. On the outside, an abundance of windows, some clear and some dark, covered every visible section. Cameras covered each corner and door, making it nearly impossible to enter the building unsupervised.

“When we open the door, alarms will immediately go off,” Jeonghan explained as he guided the other two down a path that would lead them to the secret entrance. “Wonwoo, once we’re inside, you lead the way, since you have the… gun.” He hesitated saying the word as if he would mispronounce it.

“I don’t know where to go,” Wonwoo admitted. “How do we find him?”

“I think… I think that there’s this control panel on the second floor. We just have to get there, and you can hack into the system and find where Jisoo is being kept.” Jeonghan scratched the back of his head and pointed toward a door that was covered by a black substance. “The code system is there.”

The three ushered forward, and Minghao and Jeonghan stood back and made sure that nobody was coming while Wonwoo input numbers into the code system. He played around with the code system; he typed in numbers, attempted every possible code that he could think of in the heat of the moment, and he even tried to take the wires out of the system and force it to work. Once he pressed the last button that was on the code system, he became frustrated.

He made a fist and smashed the code system with his hand three times, causing it to spark and shut off completely. The black substance that covered the door disappeared as if it had never existed, and the door cracked open. An alarm sounded.

“We have to get to the second floor!” Wonwoo yelled as he charged into the building. “Hurry!”

Minghao and Jeonghan hurried after him, following closely behind. They caught sight of people who worked for The Elite looking up from their work and grabbing something off of the wall, but they did not stick around to find out what object that they were grabbing. They found that the stairs were not easy to find, for they were at the end of a long hallway that appears after someone turns left and rounds the corner, but someone was guarding the stairs, most likely because the alarm had blared, and they had been ordered to guard the flight of stairs.

Minghao’s heart beat rapidly when he saw that Wonwoo had pulled the tranquilizer gun out of his belt. Wonwoo noticed the look on his face and clarified, “It won’t harm them. It puts them to sleep for a bit.”

Minghao nodded and watched as Wonwoo aimed at the guard, and there was a slight second of the only sound being the ear piercing alarm. Then, a new sound occurred; the guard’s limp body hitting the floor with a bang against the metal flooring.

Minghao felt as if his feet were glued to the floor until Jeonghan grabbed him and forced him to continue on whether he enjoyed it or not. He considered pushing his friend away and turning back, but two reasons stopped him from doing so; one, his friends needed him, and two, he would definitely get caught and eliminated on the spot.

He yanked his arm out of Jeonghan’s grip and swiftly followed Wonwoo up the flight of stairs and to the second floor.

“Which way would the control room be?” Wonwoo inquired, glancing around.

“I’m guessing that room,” Jeonghan remarked and pointed down the hallway toward a room that was being guarded. “They’ll only guard important rooms, and there’s really nothing else here…”

Wonwoo aimed his tranquilizer gun once more and pulled the trigger, a tranquilizer dart flying through the air and planting itself into the guard’s neck. The guard’s hand flew to his neck, but they fell to the ground before any reaction could be formed. “Got it. Thanks.”

Minghao did not stop that time, but he instead stepped over the guard’s body and entered the control room, seeing Wonwoo’s eyes light up with excitement.

“This stuff is so cool,” Wonwoo sighed happily as he sat down in the chair. “Ugh, I wish I had this stuff… Sorry, I’ll get to hacking.”

The room was covered head to toe in computers and other gadgets that neither Minghao or Jeonghan could begin to fathom. There was a computer that covered almost the entirety of the back wall, the computer that Wonwoo was trying to hack into, and the rest was covered with amazing gadgets. Some of them flashed, some of them beeped occasionally, and some were practically there for decoration. The room seemed like a dream that had been transformed into a reality, and it scared Minghao, terrified him.

“I don’t feel good,” Minghao whimpered, running a hand through his hair. “Please, can you hurry up? I don’t like it here… I…”

Wonwoo, sweating profusely, panted, “I’m hurrying, don’t worry.”

Minghao barely heard him as he listened to the beeping of some of the gadgets on the wall. The beeping seeped into his skull, the beeping hurt him…

_A woman with the same smile as his was yanked away from his hug, sirens wailing outside of the household._

He turned around and buried his face into Jeonghan’s chest, hands clamped over his ears. Jeonghan wrapped his arms around his trembling figure, feeling protective over the boy that he had only properly befriended the other day.

“Wonwoo, is that it?” Jeonghan asked, pointing to a tab that had popped up a second ago. “Please, let that be it. It has to be.”

Wonwoo typed Jisoo’s name into the system, and a new tab popped up.

**_NAME: Hong Jisoo_ **

**_CITIZEN NUMBER: 4908_ **

**_CRIME: Destroying a camera_ **

**_ELIMINATE?: ~~YES~~ or NO_ **

“They’re going to eliminate him,” Wonwoo urgently read. “We have to go to cell number 318 on the third floor. Now!”

They heard distant yelling straight afterward, signaling that members of The Elite were climbing the stairs and heading for the three. When Minghao would not pull away from Jeonghan, Jeonghan picked him up into his arms and followed Wonwoo up the next flight of stairs at the end of the hallway, safely arriving on the third floor.

“It’s down there,” Jeonghan whispered so softly as if someone other than Wonwoo and Minghao was listening.

Wonwoo eyed him and nodded, rushing toward the cell with his tranquilizer gun held out in front of him, ready to strike.

“Jisoo!” Jeonghan hollered, disregarding the fact that the The Elite’s guards’ could probably hear him.

On the other side of cell 318 was a bang and muffled screaming. The walls must have been soundproof, but they at least knew that Jisoo was on the other side.

There was a keypad on the door that would open the door if the code was typed in correctly. “There’s no time for this bullshit,” Wonwoo growled and aimed his tranquilizer gun at the keypad. He pulled the trigger, and the dart hit the screen, causing the screen to shoot sparks of electricity and smoke, but the door opened nonetheless.

Wonwoo told Jeonghan, who was still holding Minghao, whose eyes were shut tight, to watch for the guards and to notify him if any of them appeared. Wonwoo ran into the cell and grabbed Jisoo’s hand gently and helped him to his feet, noticing that the boy seemed weak and fragile, so he gathered him into his arms without a word. Jisoo wrapped his arms around his neck and did not protest.

“This place is surely crawling with guards,” Jeonghan pointed out. “How do we get out?”

“There’s a hidden elevator in each of the cells that can go to any floor. I found a map while searching the control panel.” Wonwoo pressed a hidden button that was at the back of Jisoo’s cell, and the elevator doors creaked open as if they had not been used for awhile. “Come on!”

Jeonghan followed Wonwoo into the elevator and pressed the first floor button, breath hitching in his throat as the elevator began to descend. The elevator made unusual noises. The elevator groaned as it went down, putting out the impression that it would break open and throw whoever was inside of it to their death. That did not happen; the doors to the elevator instead opened to reveal two guards staring them down with blank expressions.

Wonwoo had claimed that nobody would get wounded, but he had no other choice when the tranquilizer gun was smacked out of his grasp and his throat was being grabbed at. He frantically set Jisoo onto the ground, in which Jisoo leaned against Jeonghan for support. He then reached up and punched one of the guards in the nose, causing them to stumble back and hold their nose, blood pouring through their fingers. He handled the other guard by sweeping their legs out from underneath them.

“Go!” Wonwoo screamed at the three of them, guards beginnning to swarm the area. “Take Jisoo and Minghao and go, Jeonghan!”

Jeonghan was horrified. “I’m not leaving you!” he screamed back, dodging a guard.

A guard grabbed Wonwoo’s arm and yanked him into the swarm of guards. “You’ll have to!”

Jeonghan blinked and somehow slung Minghao onto his back just as he had the other night, and he yanked Jisoo into his arms roughly. He began to run; he ran for the door, following in Wonwoo’s footsteps and kicking one of the guards away from him, but when he reached the door, an explosion at the other end of the building occurred.

All of the guards turned their attention away from Wonwoo and toward the explosion. He gasped and swung his leg up, kicking the guard that had ahold of him in the face, pushing past the others and joining Jeonghan at the door after punching another guard that was in his path in the stomach. He had a nosebleed and a bruise on his cheek when he arrived at the door, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Minghao opened his eyes and caught sight of someone running into the swarm of guards as if to distract them from the four rebels that were standing in the doorway. He made eye contact with him before the guards stabbed something into his neck.

“No…,” Minghao croaked, slipping off of Jeonghan’s back. “No!”

_A boy sitting at a computer did not speak as he pressed a button on the machine, causing the screen to become blank, but it was still turned on. He looked down and began to type on the keyboard, and a few others watched in awe as his fingers flew back and forth rapidly between the keys._

Wonwoo wrapped his arms around Minghao’s waist as he attempted to run forward and into the swarm. “What are you doing?” Jeonghan screamed at him as Wonwoo pulled him out of the building completely, the doors not closing.

“It was him!” Minghao wailed, turning and whacking at Wonwoo’s arms weakly. “Let me go! It was him!”

Minghao felt a sharp, stinging sensation erupt in his arm as his vision swam out of focus.

When he awoke, he found himself gazing into Mingyu’s puppy-like eyes. He instantly reacted by standing up and pushing him backward into the wall, collapsing back onto the bed afterward.

“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here!” Minghao sobbed, hands grabbing at his own hair. “How did you get here? Did you follow us? Did—”

Seungcheol appeared in the doorframe with a distressed look plastered on his face. He helped Mingyu up off of the ground with a suspicious look that quickly faded. “Calm down,” comforted Seungcheol. “He’s like us.”

Jeonghan peeked into the bedroom that Minghao soon realized was Seungcheol’s inside of the bunker. He was safe and sound inside of the bunker. He had not been eliminated. “What?”

Jeonghan laughed softly. “When we left the building, one of the guards’ own tranquilizer darts went astray and hit you. We got out of there fast, but Mingyu ran over. When he said that he wasn’t going to report us and that he doubts The Elite, we brought him to the bunker and explained everything.”

Minghao stared at Mingyu.

_“This is Mingyu,” a child announced to a group of people, smiling as he allowed another boy to sit next to him on a couch._

“My head hurts,” said Minghao.

“Go back to sleep,” Seungcheol ordered as Jeonghan and Mingyu left the room. “We can explain more in the morning, but you need to sleep.”

“Okay.” Minghao’s whole body flared with pain, otherwise he would have protested. He fell back asleep with his facial expression blank but his mind dancing with emotions.

Mingyu was another puzzle piece. 


	4. day three

Soonyoung awoke handcuffed to a metal chair that was placed in front of a metal table inside of a metal room. He quickly learned that everything inside of the building that could be made of metal was metal.

Someone was sitting in the metal chair on the opposite side of the table. He saw that the someone’s hand was burnt greatly, for they had their hand up on top of the table, tapping a rhythm on the metal using their fingers.

“Chan,” mumbled Soonyoung, blinking heavily at the person.

Chan pursed his lips. “Excuse me, but how do you know my name?”

Soonyoung’s heart seemed to twist and snap, but he forced himself to lie. “The plate told me that you would be with me shortly.”

Chan hummed and leaned forward, opening a folder and pulling out a paper. “Your name is Xu Minghao?”

“Yeah.”

Chan eyed him and sighed. “Well, you do know that you were supposed to meet with my coworker and me the other day? Did your boss contact you?”

Soonyoung did not want to involve Minghao in even more trouble, seeing as he was probably already on the Most Wanted Rebels list, mostly thanks to him. However, The Elite and the members did not know that one of the rebels that had broken in was actually Minghao, they thought that he was Minghao, which made things worse considering he had blown up a section of the building.

“My boss didn’t tell me. Doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“No.” Chan shoved the paper back into the folder and closed it, glowering at Soonyoung. “How did you do it?”

“How did I do what?”

Chan swept the folder off of the table angrily. “Blow up a section of the building, dumbass. Hack into our system. You’re going to be eliminated.”

A smirk slithered onto Soonyoung’s face. “Tsk, tsk, swearing is prohibited, isn’t it?”

Chan fell silent and glared at him, picking the folder up off of the ground without a word. He sat back down and stared at his hands for about two minutes before he spoke again. “The meeting that you were supposed to attend was about the disruption at your unit a few days ago. What do you know?”

Soonyoung pouted jokingly. “Nothing.”

Chan grew impatient and frustrated. “Nothing?”

“You know what I said, why do you repeat it?”

Chan made a noise in his throat, clearly annoyed. “We’re done here. I will tell my boss about this meeting. Your elimination will be soon.”

“Wait, Chan!” Soonyoung called to him as he stood and trudged to the door. He began to pull at his bondings. “Chan!”

Chan whirled around and waited for him to speak with an eyebrow raised.

“You doubt The Elite. I know that you do.”

Chan bit his lip and slammed the door to the room shut.

Minghao opened his eyes upon hearing violent coughing and yelling.

“Jisoo!” he heard Seungcheol wail. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Well, if you would please, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, kindly shut the fuck up—”

Minghao groaned and rolled out of bed and onto the ground, sighing as he stayed there for at least five minutes before actually standing. When the coughing ceased, he poked his head into the main room of the bunker. “What’s going on?”

Jeonghan turned to him and offered a gentle smile. “Junhui is… doing slightly better, now that Jisoo’s here. Here, have a bagel.” He held out a bagel with cream cheese slathered all over it.

“Thank you,” Minghao answered as he took the bagel and bit into it. “Alright, anyone mind explaining why I always wake up to the weirdest things?”

“You get used to it,” Wonwoo sighed as he shut off his computer in order to consume his apple in peace.

“Now,” Minghao hummed, “does anyone mind explaining what exactly happened last night?”

“Okay,” Jeonghan sighed and motioned for him to sit down. “We already said the main idea of it all, but…”

_Minghao went limp in Wonwoo’s arms, frightening him and Jeonghan both. Wonwoo picked him up into his arms without a word and caught sight of a tranquilizer dart that was planted in his arm. He ripped it out swiftly and threw it to the ground before staring at Jeonghan, who was holding Jisoo in his arms._

_“It was one of their darts,” Wonwoo mumbled and nodded toward the way that the bunker was. “We’ll have to run. We can’t stay here any longer.”_

_Jeonghan nodded in agreement and sprinted after him, following him into the woods. Wonwoo abruptly stopped, almost causing the other to crash into him, but he did not. He balanced himself and asked, “Wonwoo, what’s wrong?”_

_“Someone’s watching us.” Wonwoo was staring fixedly at a tree._

_Jeonghan’s eyes glided to where he was staring, and he found that he was not looking at the tree, but the pair of eyes that were watching them._

_“Don’t just stand there, dumbass,” Wonwoo huffed at the someone, stepping forward a bit toward the tree. “What do you want? To report us and have us eliminated?”_

_“No,” the someone called out to them. “I’m not reporting you.”_

_Wonwoo rose a brow and sighed, “Alright, well, we’re trying to get somewhere, so if you could please—”_

_“I doubt The Elite, too,” the someone whispered barely loud enough for them to hear. “Can I help you all?”_

_Jeonghan and Wonwoo exchanged glances. “Follow us, then,” ordered Wonwoo. “If—”_

_“No funny business. I got it.” The someone peeled themselves out from behind of the tree and followed them the rest of the way to the bunker._

“Then, how many people do we have left?” questioned Jeonghan.

“That’s part of Minghao’s dream, isn’t it?” Mingyu questioned. “Thirteen people coming together?”

“Yes.”

“Five,” Minghao announced. “I think.”

Minghao, after uttering the number, got an idea. He thought about the fact that Mingyu had been his coworker before they had both chosen to rebel, and he had been as close with him and Seokmin as he could have been. Maybe Seokmin would end up becoming another puzzle piece, and maybe he was a puzzle piece that someone would try to force into the puzzle but it would never end up fitting, but either way, they had to try.

“What did you know about Seokmin?” blurted Minghao, looking over at Mingyu.

Mingyu was taken aback at first, but he leaned forward in his seat and pondered the question. “He’s just really nice. He’s never done anything wrong, he can’t possibly…?”

“He could possibly doubt The Elite,” Jeonghan interrupted. “We thought that you didn’t, didn’t we?”

“I guess so. It’s worth a shot.”

Wonwoo ate the last of his apple and scowled, tapping his fingers against his computer table. “We’ll never be able to go outside, not in the daylight. It would be risky to go at night, too. What do we do?”

“I’ll go,” Mingyu offered and stood. “It’s early. I could go to work and say that I’m just late, since nobody suspects me. I’ll get through to Seokmin, and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just come back.”

“Promise us you’ll be careful,” Jeonghan sighed.

“Promise.” Mingyu left the bunker without another word, the only sound being Junhui’s series of soft coughs.

Mingyu was careful not to be seen in the woods after leaving the bunker. He ducked behind trees if he felt unsafe, moving stealthily until he arrived back in the city. He noticed people rushing in and out of The Elite’s building while being driven to work, and he assumed that people were put to work in order to restore the part of the building that had mysteriously ruptured. When he reached his destination, he thanked the driver, who just gave him a nod before driving away to drive the next person somewhere.

When he pushed through the doors of his work, Seokmin glanced up from his work to look at him. He pursed his lips and set his pen down onto the table before standing and walking over to him.

“I was getting worried,” Seokmin revealed.

“Why?”

Seokmin bit his lip and shook his head. “Nothing. I was just afraid that something happened to you, since The Elite’s building kind of… blew up.”

“Yeah…” Mingyu watched as Seokmin turned around to return to his cubicle, but he had no time to waste, so he grabbed his wrist roughly.

Seokmin tried to yank away, but Mingyu would not allow him to do so. “Violence is prohibited,” whispered Seokmin. “Let me go!”

“We have to talk, but not here.” Mingyu glanced around at his previous coworkers, who were definitely starting to wonder what was going on, and the cameras that were recording their every move. “It’s important.”

“Alright, fine. Where are we going?” Seokmin asked suspiciously, not wanting to argue in front of everyone.

“Outside.”

“What?” Seokmin huffed, stifling a laugh. “How’s that gonna help?”

“It won’t, but this’ll only take a second. It’s better to do it outside where there’s only cameras than to do it in here where there’s cameras and people.”

Seokmin did not reply, but he followed Mingyu outside nonetheless. Everyone was at work, so the only people on the streets were members of The Elite and security guards that did not abandon their jobs to rebel, unlike Jeonghan. Taxi drivers were stopped on the side of the road until lunchtime when people would be asking for a ride somewhere.

“Okay, what?” Seokmin murmured, looking at the camera that was staring them down. “Make it quick, please.”

“It’s about The Elite. Do you doubt him, yes or no?”

Seokmin’s face paled, and he looked at his feet. “That’s not for me to say. I’m loyal to The Elite.”

“You do, don’t you?” Mingyu’s eyes lit up upon realizing that Minghao had been correct. “You’re not alone, you know.”

Seokmin glared at him. “I don’t want to rebel.”

“If you doubt The Elite, you already are.”

“Nobody needs to know that.” Seokmin crossed his arms softly. He looked at the building that he worked at and at the cameras, hesitating before turning to return to his work.

“Seokmin, the cameras already caught our conversation. You’ll be eliminated if you don’t come with me.” Mingyu was practically begging, for he knew that Seokmin was another puzzle piece that would perfectly fit.

Seokmin stopped in his tracks but did not turn around. He seemed to be considering his words. The cameras had already recorded their conversation, and if they could hear what they had been saying, he would be eliminated if he did not hide. Even with that incorporated into his thoughts, he walked into his work building without giving Mingyu a second glance.

A security guard grabbed Mingyu’s arm roughly despite the no violence rule.

“You are not supposed to be on the streets at this time of day unless you’re a member of The Elite or a security guard. I’m going to have to take you to The Elite.”

Fear flashed across Mingyu’s face. “I was just getting some fresh air, really,” he protested, ripping his arm away from the security guard.

The security guard stared at him before tapping on her watch. “You are not supposed to go against a security guard. You will be eliminated.”

“I really wasn’t—”

Mingyu was quick to dodge the security guard’s tool, recognizing it as a syringe filled with a medicine that was designed to make people sleep for awhile; he had only seen it be used once on a rebel about four years ago. As he was dodging her, however, a second security ran out from behind a building and grabbed him by the wrist. He tried to pull out of the security guard’s grasp, but she had ahold of him securely, unlike her coworker.

The security guard that had ahold of him quickly lost her grip when the syringe that the other had been holding was stabbed into her neck. She fell to the ground with a thump, and the other security guard was laying on the ground, holding her nose. Seokmin appeared holding the syringe with widened eyes.

“Let’s go, now!” Mingyu yelped, and Seokmin dropped the syringe and ran after him before the other security guard had a chance to stand.

Mingyu led Seokmin through the woods, running faster when he heard a noise that was only a twig snapping, courtesy of Seokmin. He was unnerved, especially after that incident; he had not wanted that to happen, he had just wanted to peacefully grab Seokmin and dash away.

Minghao’s head snapped up as he heard the hatch open. “He’s back,” he announced loudly, causing Jisoo to glance up from his work.

Mingyu walked into the room, disheveled, with Seokmin, who looked amused by the hidden bunker. They both turned to Junhui, who was coughing greater than he ever had before.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Mingyu frantically, bending down and touching his hand lightly.

Jeonghan looked at Seokmin. “Come with me,” he said, nodding toward a room. “I’ll explain everything.”

When they left the room, Jisoo answered, “He stumbled in here, coughing like this. I think it may be poison, but I’ve never seen poison like this…”

Confusion washed over Mingyu. “What does poison do?”

“I’ve been told it’s really bad,” Jisoo explained, holding a plastic cup of water to Junhui’s lips. “I don’t know exactly what it does. The Elite is the only person who has some, so I don’t know how it would’ve gotten into his system.”

Junhui pushed the water away, causing Jisoo to drop the cup. The water sloshed out of the cup and splashed everywhere.

“He won’t eat or drink,” Jisoo sighed.

Wonwoo paused, his fingers hovering above his keyboard without moving as if time had stopped. “Jisoo, don’t give him anything else yet. I’ll be back.”

Jisoo blinked. “Okay.”

Minghao, Seungcheol, Mingyu, Junhui, and Jisoo all waited for Wonwoo to return while Jeonghan explained everything, including the dream, to Seokmin in another room.

Junhui continued to cough while Wonwoo was away, but no blood emerged. He could hardly speak without his throat burning immensely. He did not know what was wrong; he had been fine just a week ago, but now, every time he spoke, he felt as if he was close to suffocation.

Wonwoo returned holding a bag of opened lemons. Two had been eaten, but the rest were still intact. “Junhui’s the only one who eats lemons. They’re discolored.”

Jisoo looked Junhui in the eyes. “When was the last time you ate a lemon?”

“Two,” spluttered Junhui, unable to speak more.

“That’s why it got worse. He ate another.”

Mingyu tapped on the wall in order to draw attention to himself, and he succeeded. “I know that this is serious,” he commented, “but he eats whole lemons?”

“He’s fucking weird! I don’t know!” Seungcheol huffed, frustrated. “You’re saying that the lemons are poisoned, yeah? Is he gonna die?”

Wonwoo threw the lemons into the trash can as Jisoo answered, “No. He would’ve died already if so. If he would’ve eaten another, then I wouldn’t know, but he didn’t.”

“He needs medicine,” Minghao piped up. “How can we get medicine if all of us are known criminals now?”

“Junhui is our spy, but he can’t go out, obviously.” Seungcheol ran a hand through his hair before leaving the room silently.

“We’ll have to go at night,” Minghao pointed out. “Jisoo will have to come with, since he knows the medicines.”

Jisoo pulled a key out of his pocket and swung it around on his fingers. “Nobody’s there at night. We can go when it’s dark.”

“Won’t there be a guard?” Minghao questioned.

“You handled the guards just fine at The Elite’s building.”

Minghao laughed softly. “I didn’t. Wonwoo and Jeonghan did.”

Wonwoo sighed and pressed a button on his computer, shutting it off. “I’ll go with you tonight.”

Jisoo nodded. “Alright.”

They knew when it was nighttime when the sun disappeared and darkness shone through the holes in the hatch that opened to reveal the shelter. Wonwoo grabbed a single tranquilizer dart from the weapon room and stated, “I’m not losing another tranquilizer gun. Let’s hope that we only need this one.”

They did not say goodbye, for Junhui hated goodbyes, and they would definitely return with the medicine.

“Do you know what medicine to get?” Wonwoo whispered as they crossed through the woods to get to the city.

Jisoo shook his head. “No, but there’s a book on poisoning somewhere in the cabinets. We’ll get the medicine that it says to get.”

They stopped upon seeing that the city was swarming with security guards. A guard stood outside of every building, including minor buildings, such as the library that people were only permitted to enter if they needed a book for work.

“We only have one dart to use, this can’t be possible,” Wonwoo remarked.

Jisoo placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not impossible, though, is it?”

“No?”

“They only guard the front doors,” Jisoo replied with a smirk. “There’s a back door to the hospital. We use it to bring in patients who are in severe pain. We’ve never had to use it, but I think that this key will open it.”

“Okay, smart guy, how do we get past all these guards?”

“Like I said, they only guard the front doors. We can sneak behind buildings.”

Wonwoo gaped at him, scowling shortly afterward. “Wipe that smirk off your face. Come on.”

Jisoo wiped the smirk off of his face and followed closely behind, grabbing Wonwoo’s hand unconsciously. Wonwoo did not mind. Jisoo did not know where the feeling came from, but he never enjoyed the feeling of being alone.

They snaked behind the buildings that led to the hospital, stopping occasionally to make sure that they were not being followed or being spotted. Nothing happened. They realized that the cameras were watching their every move, but none of the footage would matter because they would return to the bunker hopefully unscathed and with the medicine that was needed.

“We’ll have to be very quiet,” Jisoo hummed while unlocking the back door. “The slightest noise sets these guards off.”

Wonwoo nodded, not wanting to speak. The door squeaked open, and thankfully, the squeak was not loud, so a security guard did not turn their head and rush over. They stepped inside and inhaled the air that spelled purely of cleaning supplies, and Jisoo closed the door behind them, just in case.

“You keep watch while I look for the medicine,” Jisoo whispered and walked over to a cupboard, unlocking it with the key. He began to rummage through the cabinet as quietly as he could as Wonwoo made sure that security guards would not come inside.

Wonwoo found the hospital fascinating. He had never been to the hospital, and while he did not enjoy the smell, he found everything else exciting. The walls were a boring white, but that was not what he liked; he liked the walls that were filled with medicine cabinets, supplies, and computers that were only used for searching up medicine. He was tempted to sit down at one of the computers and mess around, but he was not stupid.

He _was_ stupid, though, when he tripped over a cord on the ground that hooked the computers up to an outlet. He crashed to the ground, knocking the computer over in the process. The computer broke into several pieces when it hit the ground, and the door to the hospital burst open.

“Wonwoo, what the hell did you do?” Jisoo screamed, frantically flipping through a book that he was holding in his hands. The other books that were in the cabinet had been thrown to the floor.

“I’m sorry!” Wonwoo yelled back, throwing his weight against the door in an attempt to keep the security guard out. “Hurry!”

Jisoo threw the book to the floor and ripped open a cabinet filled with medicine. He began to pull medicine off of the shelves, carefully reading the labels. “I’m trying! We need the correct medicine!”

Wonwoo was pushed to the ground by a security guard that found her way inside with the help of her coworker. She reached down in an attempt to grab ahold of him, but he, panicked, shoved the tranquilizer dart into her neck, being grabbed by the other security guard instead. “Jisoo! Get the medicine and go!”

“What?” Jisoo shoved two bottles of medicine into his pocket as he threw other bottles to the ground after examining the labels and finding that they were not the correct medicine. “I’m not leaving without you!”

Wonwoo drew his arm back and punched the conscious security guard in the mouth, wriggling out of his grip. He did not have time to stand, so he began to crawl away. His leg was soon grabbed and yanked at by another security guard that had found their way over to the situation. “Jisoo!”

“Wonwoo, Wonwoo, Wonwoo,” Jisoo whispered to himself, piling three more bottles of medicine into his pockets. “Wonwoo!”

“There’s no time! Go!” Wonwoo shouted, both of his legs in the security guard’s grip.

The back door burst open, and a security guard eyed Jisoo. Jisoo quickly shoved the remaining bottles of medicine toward the security guard that was after him to buy time, running toward a window that he could easily slither through. He smashed his fist into the window, causing his knuckles to bleed, the bleeding worsening after five punches. After the tenth punch, the window shattered, shards of glass flying everywhere, causing him to stumble backward and shield his face.

The security guard grabbed his arm, but he quickly whirled around and smashed his bleeding hand into the guard’s face. When his arm was free, he jumped through the window. He landed on his stomach on the concrete, scraping his knees and elbows. He made sure that the medicine was secured in his pocket before rushing away and making sure that the security guards were not following, mentally telling himself that they would all be back for Wonwoo.

Back at the bunker, Minghao drifted asleep, hoping to see Wonwoo and Jisoo in the morning.


	5. day four

Soonyoung was confused.

After the meeting with Chan, someone had walked into the room and had stabbed a syringe into his neck. He had awoken just a minute ago inside of the same cell that he had been contained in before, but the electric bracelet that had electrocuted him before had been taken off.

His confusion worsened when he saw Wonwoo being thrown into the cell across from his.

He quickly realized that the cell that he was inside of now was not his previous cell. He only knew that because of the fact that the other cells had no windows whatsoever, and his had a medium sized window beside the metal door. It was one of the elimination cells on the top floor, and Wonwoo was in one of them as well.

Someone abruptly opened the door to his cell with a sparkling gold key, eyeing him suspiciously and holding a syringe that was full of medicine that was used to tranquilize citizens who acted out. The someone stepped inside of the cell tentatively, locking the door behind them.

“Hansol,” breathed Soonyoung.

Hansol was taken aback, and he held the syringe out in front of him. “How do you know my name?”

“You’re scared of me,” Soonyoung whispered, his heart breaking.

“You hacked our system and blew up a part of the building.” He lowered the syringe, which was his first mistake.

Soonyoung shrugged and stared at him. “You’ll understand why.”

“Yes, well,” Hansol began, pulling a piece of crumpled paper out of his pocket distractedly.

Soonyoung launched himself forward. He pushed the syringe out of Hansol’s hands and grabbed his shoulders, pushing him up against the wall, his body creating a loud bang against the metal. Hansol breathed heavily and tried to push him away to no avail.

“You have to listen to me,” Soonyoung pleaded.

Hansol tried to free his hand in order to tap on his watch and call for help. “No, I don’t.”

“You doubt The Elite. I know that you do. You need to help, you need to let Wonwoo go—”

Hansol roughly escaped Soonyoung’s grasp by head butting him and tapping on his watch. Soonyoung stumbled to the ground and held his head, wondering where he had gotten so strong, since he had not been very tough when he had been a child.

The memory pained him, but he forced his thoughts away and grabbed the syringe that had fallen to the ground. He swung his arm over toward Hansol and planted the needle into his leg, which caused him to yell and turn around, immediately passing out before he could react.

He grabbed Hansol’s unconscious body and placed him up against the wall in a comfortable position, for he felt bad, even if Hansol did not even recognize his face. He fished the golden keys out of Hansol’s belt and stood, swiftly unlocking the door, hearing the distant footsteps of guards rushing up the flights of stairs. He ran over to Wonwoo’s cell and unlocked it, sliding the key underneath the cell’s metal door in the process, hoping that his childhood friend would understand how to escape before noticing a ladder down the hallway.

Soonyoung decided to climb the ladder, which would take him to the roof of the building.

Minghao awoke to the sound of screaming and crying. It frightened him, and the fact that nobody was at his bedside scared him more. He stood and trudged into the main room of the bunker to find Jisoo on the floor crying, a sobbing Seungcheol being held by Jeonghan while Mingyu and Seokmin steered clear of the situation sadly. Junhui was on the couch, seemingly frightened.

“W-Where’s Wonwoo?” Minghao whimpered.

Jeonghan glanced at him and frowned, rushing over to him with a forlorn look. Seungcheol fell out of Jeonghan’s grip with an irritated sob.

“Wonwoo got… caught,” Jeonghan explained, his voice cracking slightly.

“It’s my fault,” Jisoo cried, wiping at his eyes with his hands, new tears replacing the old ones. He tried to wipe them away, but he failed each time. “I didn’t… I couldn’t…”

“It’s not your fault,” Jeonghan stated firmly.

“Someone please explain,” Minghao requested softly, missing the sound of the keys clicking on Wonwoo’s keyboard.

“Wonwoo got caught by security guards,” Jeonghan explained more explicitly. “Jisoo said that Wonwoo knocked a computer over, and guards came in and caught him, but he escaped with the medicine.”

“Then, it’s not Jisoo’s fault.”

Seokmin piped up, sadly looking at the ground despite knowing the truth for about a day. “It’s nobody’s fault.”

“We need to save him,” Seungcheol murmured softly, wiping at his eyes in order to compose himself. “We need to get inside The Elite’s building.”

Junhui croaked, “How?”

Seungcheol shot him a glare. “Don’t talk. It’ll irritate your throat more.”

“We can’t get inside.” Minghao closed his eyes and shook his head viciously. “Not again. It’s extremely impossible.”

The door that they had used the last time to get inside of The Elite’s building was definitely being guarded by more than one security guard, and the back doors of buildings would certainly become guarded as well because of the events that had taken place the night before. There were still puzzle pieces that they needed to add into the group of eventually thirteen, and if they could not leave the bunker, they would not be able to complete the task of finding them. Their best bet would be to send Seokmin to search for the missing people, since he had not created the biggest commotion on the streets, but it would still be risky.

Jeonghan seemed to read Minghao’s mind.

“You’re thinking of sending Seokmin out there, aren’t you, Minghao?” he questioned, raising a brow. “He caused a commotion, too. What good will this do?”

“Yeah, but he caused the least commotion. He said that he tranquilized a guard and kicked another. That’s all. They can’t possibly remember his face.” Minghao tapped his foot against the ground.

“He can’t go to The Elite’s building alone,” Jisoo mumbled after finally composing himself and bringing himself to stand.

“That’s not what I was suggesting.”

Everyone in the room looked at him confusedly. His heart ached slightly when he remembered that Wonwoo was not in the room and typing on his keyboard as usual.

“I’m suggesting that we send him to search for the other puzzle pieces.”

Mingyu shook his head lightly. “He would get caught if he was on the streets.”

Minghao considered that fact for a moment before replying, “He can go at lunchtime.”

A laugh was bubbling in Seokmin’s throat, but he forced himself to squeak, “Even if this does work, where the hell will I look?”

“The puzzle pieces are all people that we know, even if not well,” Seungcheol commented. “They have been up to this point, anyway.”

“Maybe you’re right, but that could easily change.” Seokmin stuck his tongue out while pondering, his eyes lighting up brilliantly after two minutes. “Jihoon?”

Mingyu and Minghao both snorted. “Jihoon is one of the bosses,” stated Mingyu. “Why would he suspect anything?”

“I mean, Jeonghan was a security guard…”

A bang interrupted their conversation. They fearfully glanced at each other, wondering what could be happening on the surface, but they found that the sound was merely Seungcheol’s fist slamming down onto the table that Wonwoo’s keyboard was placed atop. “Why do we keep doubting things?” he growled. “Wonwoo is going to be eliminated, and we’re doubting shit? If Seokmin suggests Jihoon, then Seokmin needs to go find Jihoon. He’s a boss, so if he is a puzzle piece, won’t he have more information on The Elite than all of us?”

Everyone’s eyes were on Seungcheol after his outburst. He did not remove his fist from the table, which had splintered, until Minghao spoke. “He’s right, you know. Jihoon stops at the library during his lunchtime.”

Nobody questioned how Minghao knew that Jihoon went to the library during his lunchtime, and they simply waited until they figured that it was lunchtime. Seokmin and Seungcheol stood underneath the hatch that allowed people inside of the bunker, peeking out occasionally to determine whether it was lunchtime or not, because if it was, taxi horns would be sounding and voices would be carrying.

A horn that belonged to a taxi rang out in the distance.

“Be careful,” Seungcheol ordered, handing Seokmin two tranquilizer darts. “If you don’t return by the time that lunch is over, we’re coming after you.”

“I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

Seungcheol nodded and patted his shoulder, walking back to the main room. Seokmin opened the hatch and climbed out.

Wonwoo was confused.

In the cell across from his, a man had escaped, which had alerted security guards. Security guards had rushed up the stairs, but they had only found one of The Elite’s member’s bodies unconscious in the other cell, a syringe planted in his leg.

Wonwoo was holding a sparkling, golden key that could be used to unlock his cell. When the security guards had swarmed the area, he had placed the key into his mouth and underneath his tongue, for there was no other place to hide it. When the security guards had questioned him about the man who had escaped, he had shaken his head at all of their questions.

He was alone again, holding the saliva covered key in his hand.

He pushed himself up off of the ground and looked out the window that was beside the metal door that had him trapped. He shoved the key into the lock, since he had locked it again earlier, just in case, and pushed the door open, and surprisingly, no alarm blared. He glanced toward the stairs, and when he heard no footsteps, he swiftly found the way that the man had escaped.

There was a ladder on the wall and no stairs to be found, so he assumed that he was being held on the top floor. He gripped the key tightly before weakly climbing the ladder, nearly falling onto his back twice. Once at the top of the ladder, he pushed open a hatch that slightly reminded him of the entrance to the bunker.

The man that he had witnessed escape was waiting for him, sitting next to the hatch. Wonwoo did not emerge fully until the man grasped his arm gently and pulled, shutting the hatch with his foot quickly afterward.

“Wonwoo,” the man murmured, his eyes glassy. “I know what you’re going to say, so don’t. I’m Soonyoung.”

Wonwoo blinked at him and tried to read his blank expression, but he could not decipher it. “Did you blow up the building?”

Soonyoung almost laughed, and how he _wished_ that he could bring himself to chuckle but still could not was terrible. “Yes.”

“How?”

Soonyoung pursed his lips and shook his head. “It wasn’t hard. I hacked into the plate that was inside of my old cell and figured it out.”

Wonwoo’s heart began to race. “Hack? You can hack?”

“Yes.” Soonyoung pulled his sleeve over his hand and wiped at his eyes, the glassiness fading after he did so. “Who do you think taught you, Wonwoo? _Who_?”

Wonwoo stood. “I don’t even know you.”

“You did.”

Seokmin ducked behind a tree for the fifth time before he ran out of the woods to motion a taxi over. He was afraid that people were watching him even though there was only one camera in the woods, and it was at the entrance. Security guards did not enter the woods unless instructed to do so by The Elite, and they had no reason to enter otherwise.

The taxi driver seemed skeptical of him, whether it was because of the dirt on his white clothes or because they knew that he was a rebel, he did not know, but the driver did not ask any questions. They were not supposed to talk to their passengers.

Seokmin told the driver that he wanted to be dropped off at the library, and the driver complied, speeding away. He looked out the window to find people sitting on benches and enjoying their lunches silently, as everyone was supposed to do. Deep conversations were prohibited, and while the rule still confused him, he did not want to think about the rules.

He was already breaking every rule that was written in ink in The Elite’s book.

He was practically pushed out of the taxi, for he did not realize that the driver had stopped. He apologized and thanked the driver, not even receiving a nod in reply.

He entered the library with a serious look on his face. A bell that was placed atop the door in order to signal when people were entering rung, and he hurriedly ushered over behind a section of books so that the librarian would not notice his dirty clothes or his face. She did not notice, and nobody else noticed, for the only other person in the library was Jihoon, who was looking at a row of books on office management.

“Jihoon,” Seokmin whispered, his voice shaking.

Jihoon spun around and hovered a finger over his watch, lowering his finger slightly upon seeing who had spoken. “Seokmin.”

“I’m just going to get to the point, seeing that you’re ready to report me.” Seokmin kept a hand on his pocket that held two tranquilizer darts. “Do you doubt The Elite?”

Jihoon set the book that he was holding back onto the shelf that he had ripped it off of. “Why are you asking me this, Seokmin?”

“You’re not reporting me. Okay, that’s great. You do.” Seokmin nodded and played with his fingers. “Look, I can explain everything if you come with me.”

“Why the fuck—”

“Jihoon, it’s really important, and the cameras have already captured our conversation. Are you in or out?”

Jihoon sighed and placed a finger to his temple. “My life was perfectly fine. Why did you have to come and ruin it?”

Seokmin’s mouth curled into a smile. “I didn’t ruin anything. You just have to promise me—”

“I’m not promising shit, but since you caught me, I’ll come with you.”

Seokmin was a bit nervous. He had expected Jihoon to deny his words, he had expected him to tap on his watch and report him, but he did not do either of those things, which worried him. The whole situation seemed too good to be true, but his boss had never been subtle.

Seokmin knew that Jihoon was another puzzle piece, and the others knew it as well. Why did he worry so much when Jihoon had just _agreed_ to come with him?

The door to the library burst open, and three security guards piled in. The taxi driver that had driven Seokmin to the library was standing behind them, and it was obvious that he had reported him after he had been dropped off.

“No choice but to follow you now,” Jihoon muttered. “What’s the plan?”

“Are there guards at the back door?”

“There’s no back door at this library, dumbass.”

Seokmin pulled the two tranquilizer darts out of his pocket and held one of them out in front of him, handing the other to Jihoon. “Follow my lead, then.”

Seokmin peeked out from behind the bookshelf, discovering that the librarian was talking to them and answering their questions truthfully. One of the three security guards peered down the bookshelves and rushed toward the shelf that Seokmin and Jihoon were hiding behind after checking behind the others.

“Break a window!” Seokmin shouted and launched himself toward the security guard, pushing him into a rack of books. Several books scattered about the floor.

Jihoon was silent as he whirled around and grabbed a thick book that had over eight hundred pages, smashing it into the nearest window. The window cracked only slightly, but after three hits, the glass shattered. He shielded his face from the glass, a shard caressing his cheek.

Jihoon grasped the book in his right hand and the tranquilizer dart in his left, turning back around to see a security guard grabbing ahold of Seokmin. He drew his arm back and slung the book at the security guard, his aim proving true when it smacked into the security guard’s head. Seokmin crawled away, still holding the unused tranquilizer dart.

“Thank you!” Seokmin yelled at him and ran over to the window that Jihoon had broken.

Jihoon nodded in reply and hopped out of the window, a piece of broken glass stabbing him in the leg as he jumped. He stumbled to the ground with a huff, glancing at Seokmin’s hand that was being offered to him.

“Thanks,” Jihoon murmured and grabbed his hand, being yanked up off of the ground.

“We need to get the guards off our asses,” Seokmin announced as he backed away from the window. “They can’t follow us to the bunker.”

“Bunker?”

“You’ll see.” Seokmin waited until the front door flew open once more before charging forward again, holding the tranquilizer dart out in front of him.

The security guard, to Seokmin’s dismay, was quick to dodge the weapon. She moved out of the way and whipped around, kicking him to the ground.

Jihoon threw the tranquilizer dart that he was holding after aiming for a second. His aim was, again, true, the dart stabbing the security guard in the back. She tripped over Seokmin’s body as she fell, her long hair flowing everywhere on the ground, and her fall had alerted the other security guards.

“Seokmin!” Jihoon hollered, noticing that Seokmin was staring at the tranquilizer dart in awe. “Come on!”

Seokmin composed himself and handed his tranquilizer dart to Jihoon, who threw it at the next guard that stumbled out of the library. The tranquilizer dart found its way into the security guard’s neck, and the two did not turn back around to see if the other security guard was following them.

Seokmin guided Jihoon to the woods, shielding his face from the camera as he dashed by it. Jihoon easily followed him, maneuvering through the turns in the path easier than his companion, which was odd because he had never been in the woods because of the rule that citizens were not allowed unless instructed to do so.

A leaf crunched behind them, loudly echoing throughout the area.

The two turned around to find a man, definitely younger than the both of them, staring at them with an unreadable expression.

“Wait,” Seokmin ordered, grabbing ahold of Jihoon’s hand that had curled into a fist. “He’s not wearing a security guard uniform.”

Jihoon glared at the man. “He’s wearing all black. He’s with The Elite.”

Seokmin let go of Jihoon’s hand, watching as it dropped to his side.

“I’m not here to capture you,” the man said softly, raising his arms into the air to show that he meant no harm. “I don’t even have my watch with me. Can I explain myself?”

Jihoon remained cautious while Seokmin nodded.

“What’s your name?” requested Seokmin.

“Chan.”

Seokmin waved his hand to show that he wanted Chan to continue speaking.

“Someone accused me of doubting The Elite when I was ordered to have a meeting with him,” Chan began, scratching the back of his head. “He’s going to be eliminated, but he escaped earlier today. I wanted to help you guys. I don’t like what The Elite is doing.”

Seokmin and Jihoon exchanged glances. “What is this person’s name?” Seokmin inquired.

“Xu Minghao, I think.”

Seokmin huffed. “Impossible. Minghao’s been in hiding with the others.”

“That’s just what the paper said. I don’t know. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Seokmin pondered Chan’s words for what seemed like hours, and while he did not think that any of the puzzle pieces could be apart of The Elite, the man had already followed them into the woods far enough that denying him access to the bunker would be dangerous. “Alright.”

Seokmin led them the rest of the way into the woods, opening the hatch that would reveal the underground shelter. He jumped down first, helping the other two down into the tunnel.

Minghao glanced up from his drawing that he had been working on for the past hour that Seokmin had been gone.

Seungcheol nearly fell out of his chair when he saw that there was three people.

“First of all, we were getting worried,” Seungcheol scolded, eyeing the two new people. “Second of all—”

“Seungcheol, shut up,” Jeonghan murmured, examining Chan’s black outfit.

“Excuse me, asshole—”

“He’s part of The Elite,” Jeonghan announced loudly, causing Junhui to fall off of the couch. Jisoo rushed over to him silently.

Minghao set his pen down. “What?”

“I am,” Chan said hesitantly, sweating. “I’m not here to capture you. I want to help.”

_A very young boy stared at the other group as his two friends talked to someone, one of the three handing over money._

“You’re a puzzle piece.” Minghao put his head in his hands, stumbling slightly. “How? This isn’t possible, you’re part of The Elite, I don’t…”

Jeonghan caught Minghao in his arms as he firmly told Mingyu and Seokmin to explain everything to Jihoon and Chan before anymore questions could be asked. Jeonghan guided Minghao back to Seungcheol’s bedroom, which really was not Seungcheol’s bedroom anymore. Seungcheol followed.

“Go to sleep,” Seungcheol ordered.

“It’s not even six in the evening. Why—”

_“Let’s play murder mystery,” a boy suggested, staring at his friends with a hopeful look._

“Ah!”

Jeonghan screamed Jisoo’s name as he forced Minghao to lay down. Jisoo immediately dashed into the room, standing in the doorway as Seungcheol quickly explained to him that Minghao’s head seemed to be in more pain than usual.

“I’ve seen headaches, but never this bad,” Jisoo commented as he ran off to grab a cup of water.

Minghao was asleep before Jisoo had a chance to return with the water, not waking until early in the morning the next day. His head throbbed in his sleep.


	6. day five

Soonyoung’s eyes were drooping, but he forced himself to remain awake.

He had not slept. He had told Wonwoo to sleep, and his companion had fallen asleep, unwilling to talk. Soonyoung had thrown his jacket over the boy’s body without a word. The last time that he had properly slept had been days ago.

Wonwoo’s eyes fluttered open.

“Good morning,” Soonyoung greeted, watching as Wonwoo panicked. “It’s okay. The Elite won’t hurt us. They don’t know that we’re up here.”

Wonwoo curled into Soonyoung’s jacket after blinking and remembering the events from the day before. “It’s cold.”

“I know,” Soonyoung responded.

Wonwoo frowned and glanced at the hatch next to his foot. “We can escape, can’t we? We can just—”

“We can’t just do anything,” Soonyoung interrupted. “We can’t escape, but we can be rescued.”

Wonwoo stared at him.

“Minghao is calling it a dream, isn’t he?” Soonyoung questioned, laughing softly. “It wasn’t a dream. He was just tranquilized after his computer was hacked. They were hoping that he wouldn’t remember anything.”

Wonwoo recoiled slightly. “How the hell do you know about any of that?”

“I was the one who hacked his computer and sent him the messages.”

Below Soonyoung and Wonwoo on the sixth floor of The Elite’s building, Hansol pushed a door with the word **boss** printed on it in bold letters.

“Seungkwan,” Hansol sighed, “have you seen Chan? We’re supposed to talk to Jeon Wonwoo.”

“I have not,” Seungkwan murmured. He was flipping through a thick stack of papers. “Go talk to him by yourself if you can’t find him.”

Hansol nodded. “Alright. Thank you.”

Seungkwan nodded and waved his hand, signaling for Hansol to leave. Hansol obeyed and scurried away, rushing up three flights of stairs, sweating and huffing when he finally reached the top floor. He pulled from his belt a syringe filled with a medicine that was used to tranquilize people, holding it out in front of him, making sure not to lower it. He silently hoped that Wonwoo would not attack him, too.

He found that Wonwoo’s cell was unlocked, and there was no Wonwoo inside, either.

Minghao found Junhui at his bedside in the morning.

“What are you doing?” Minghao groaned, rolling over onto his back. “You’re sick.”

“I feel fine,” Junhui replied, his voice scratchy.

_“Minghao, this is Junhui,” a boy announced, pointing to the boy that was standing next to him. “He’s in our friend group now.”_

“I don’t.” Minghao groaned and rolled over so that he could not see Junhui.

“We’re discussing a plan to attack The Elite’s building. Come on, get up, please?”

Minghao sighed and rolled back over, staring into Junhui’s soft eyes. “Alright,” he replied and held out a hand, being yanked out of bed by his companion, walking into the main room with him afterward.

“No, that’s not how you use a computer!” Jihoon mumbled and pushed Chan’s hands away from Wonwoo’s keyboard.

Jeonghan pulled Jihoon and Chan away from the keyboard and glared at them. “Breaking Wonwoo’s stuff won’t help him escape. Chan, what do you know?”

Minghao glanced around the room and found that everyone except for Mingyu was standing or sitting in the main room. His palms began to sweat as he became worried. “Where’s Mingyu?”

Seungcheol looked at him for half a second before returning to his apple. “He said that he wanted to search the woods. He’ll be safe, since nobody comes into the woods but us.”

Minghao nodded hesitantly, worrying for Mingyu’s wellbeing, since he could easily be captured if anyone noticed or suspected him. Even though ordinary citizens were not allowed to enter the woods, he was still worried, but he pushed his feelings aside.

“We’re planning an attack?” Minghao asked.

Seungcheol nodded and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen that was nearly out of ink. “We wanted to wait for you to wake up until we continued talking about it.”

“The city has security guards guarding everything,” Jeonghan explained. “It’s too risky to go at night, but the darkness can camouflage us easier. We were thinking about sending Chan back to the building, since he’s with The Elite, and searching for the two missing puzzle pieces.”

Seokmin shook his head. “How do we know that the missing pieces are with The Elite?”

“We don’t know of anyone else,” Jeonghan responded, watching as Seungcheol drew something on the paper. “Chan, do you know of anyone who could doubt The Elite?”

“Hansol, maybe, but he’s rather quiet,” Chan sighed. “He’s the only coworker that I actually work with. He’s said that some of the things that The Elite does are questionable, so maybe…”

“Even if Chan is able to get into the building without harm,” Jihoon piped up, “what is he supposed to do from there? He can’t fight the whole building.”

Minghao shook his head and sat down in Wonwoo’s chair that was placed underneath his computer table. He raised a hand into the air, silently telling everyone in the room to be quiet, and they obeyed. “He’s not going to do anything except bring back anyone who doubts The Elite.”

Seungcheol shot him a look. “What do you mean? We need to save Wonwoo!”

Minghao walked over to Seungcheol and crumpled up the paper that he had been drawing on, grabbing a new piece of paper and setting it on top of the computer table, stealing the pen as well. “We’ll save Wonwoo, and we’ll also find the person from my dream, but we can’t do anything unless we find the remaining two.”

“Why can’t Chan just save Wonwoo and the person from your dream while inside of The Elite’s building?” Jisoo inquired, confusedly staring at Minghao along with the others.

“This might sound crazy, but that’s not going to work. Once all of the puzzle pieces are found, we can enter The Elite’s building and take down The Elite, saving Wonwoo and the dream person in the process.”

Everyone stared at Minghao, gaping as if he had just stated the most intelligent sentence ever.

“When we have the other two puzzle pieces here, then we use this paper to draw up a plan.”

Jeonghan nodded solemnly and scratched the back of his neck. “I think that your plan is our best bet. Chan should go to the building and try to find the remaining puzzle pieces first.”

Seungcheol gazed at Chan. “Do you need anything to take with you before you go?”

Chan shook his head and grabbed a pear from a box of fruits. “No. I work for The Elite, nobody will question me, even if my clothes are the dirtiest on the planet.”

He took ten minutes to finish his pear, which did not taste exactly juicy, but he felt full enough to start the day after consuming the fruit. He bid the others, his _friends_ , goodbye before opening the hatch and climbing out into the woods.

He expected to see Mingyu roaming around the woods, but he did not. He rushed through the woods in a heartbeat, used to the feeling of running, since he usually ran around the city sometimes to check up on people to make sure that they were not violating any of the rules. He felt foolish thinking about the rules when he was breaking the biggest rule of all.

He reached the city without any trouble, calling a taxi over. It was not lunchtime, so taxis were stopped on the side of the road, but if the driver saw that someone from The Elite or a security guard needed a ride, they abandoned the side of the road and wheeled over in a heartbeat.

“The Elite’s building, please.”

The driver nodded and placed his hands on the wheel.

“Make it quick, please,” Chan added.

The driver nodded again and hurried down the street, driving faster than usual since Chan had requested that he make it quick. Chan kept his eyes on his hands that were folded in his lap during the entire ride, only looking up once to see how close that they were to the building. He thanked the driver quietly as he stepped out, not even sure if the driver had heard him, but he did not stick around to find out.

Chan entered The Elite’s building through the front door to be greeted with security guards placing more cameras and alarms all over the place.

“What’s happening?” Chan asked one of the security guards that was setting up an alarm.

The security guard did not look at him. “Jeon Wonwoo and Xu Minghao recently escaped, so we’re preparing for anything else. Hansol was looking for you, by the way.”

Chan nodded and continued on his way toward the stairs. “Thank you.”

Chan walked up four flights of stairs in order to get to the fourth floor where Hansol’s office was. His own was on the fifth floor, which did not please him, since he did not enjoy the stairs. He found his coworker’s office and knocked on the door, his knock causing the door to creak open.

“It’s unlocked,” Hansol muttered under his breath as he marked on a piece of paper.

“I can see that.” Chan sat on the chair opposite of him. “Why were you looking for me?”

“We were supposed to talk to Wonwoo this morning, but he escaped, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”

Chan sat back and glanced down at the paper that Hansol was marking on, noticing that it was not paperwork, but instead a drawing and a few words. “What’s that?”

Hansol flipped the paper over. “What?”

“The paper.”

“Paperwork.”

“Paperwork my ass,” accused Chan, reaching out to grab the piece of paper. Hansol reached across his desk and pushed his arm away, a frightened look on his face.

“It’s something that you aren’t supposed to see.”

Chan glared at him. “Is it?”

Hansol glared back at him, becoming distracted by Chan’s words. Chan took his distraction as a chance to grab ahold of the piece of paper, and when he had ahold of it, he scooted his chair away, for Hansol attempted to rip the paper away again.

**_REASONS TO DOUBT THE ELITE_ **

Hansol’s handwriting was sloppy, but Chan was able to decipher the words. “You do doubt The Elite, don’t you?”

Hansol widened his eyes. “Are you going to report me?”

“No.” Chan set the paper down, but it missed the table and fell to the floor like a feather. “I doubt him.”

Hansol eyed the paper, his gaze turning to Chan. “I knew it. I knew that you doubted him, I knew—”

“There’s others,” Chan interrupted, tapping his fingers against his leg nervously. “You’ve heard of those rebels. There’s more than those three. It’s really complicated, so you’ll have to come with me. You’re a puzzle piece.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not lying.” Chan did not hear the footsteps outside of Hansol’s office. “You’ll just have to follow me, I swear—”

“What is this?”

Hansol looked up from his desk as Chan turned around to face Seungkwan, who was holding the piece of paper that Hansol had written on.

“Nothing,” Chan lied.

“You doubt my _father_?”

Minghao was becoming stressed. Chan had left an hour and a half ago, and while Jeonghan had assured him that he would probably take some time, he could not shake the feeling that something, something _bad_ , had happened.

“What’s the plan once we do have all the puzzle pieces?” Seokmin asked.

“Defeat The Elite, I guess,” Minghao responded distractedly, staring at Wonwoo’s keyboard.

“Yeah, but—”

Everyone heard the hatch open, and while they expected it to be Chan, it was Mingyu.

“Did you find anything?” Seungcheol questioned. “We sent Chan to The Elite’s building to find the missing puzzle pieces.”

“They have a hidden camera deeper into the woods than our bunker,” Mingyu revealed and sat down on the floor. “I don’t think that it can see our bunker, though.”

“Don’t see how it could if we haven’t been discovered after all this time,” Junhui murmured with a cough, Jisoo yelling at him to shut up.

“That’s still dangerous,” Jeonghan noted. “We should get rid of it.”

“Not right now,” Seungcheol huffed and grabbed another apple. “Nobody else is leaving this bunker until Chan gets back.”

Minghao felt grateful that Seungcheol had enforced that rule considering the fact that he was already worried about Chan. Something terrible could have occurred, and he could be betraying them, but he did not understand why he would betray him if he was another puzzle piece.

Wonwoo was curious as to why Soonyoung was staring over the side of the building, so he decided to finally question him.

“What the hell are you doing?” asked Wonwoo, raising a brow.

Soonyoung halfheartedly smiled. “I’m watching the streets. I miss how it used to be.”

“How it used to be?”

“Yeah.” Soonyoung directed his gaze at Wonwoo, grinning. “Children used to run around the city, and cars used to be everywhere. Everyone was more free, they could have real conversations without being deemed suspicious. People could wear different colored clothes.”

Wonwoo gaped a him, cocking his head to the side. “What are children?”

Soonyoung stared sadly at him before turning his attention back to the streets. “When is your birthday?”

“The twenty-fourth of November. Everyone was born on the same day in the same year.”

“Wrong. The Elite just told you that. It doesn’t make any sense if you think about it, does it?”

Wonwoo shrugged. “I guess not?”

“Come over here and look at the streets.”

Wonwoo reluctantly complied, staring over the side of the building. He felt Soonyoung’s hand wrap around his waist protectively, making sure that he would not fall.

Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan sat in a circle in the back of Hansol’s office, discussing the paper of reasons that Hansol had attempted to keep a secret. They had been talking for fifteen minutes about The Elite.

“My father has made some questionable rules,” Seungkwan whispered. “He’s just following in his father’s footsteps.”

“What happened to your grandfather?” Hansol inquired lightly.

Seungkwan’s face paled, but he merely answered, “He was eliminated.”

“Look,” Chan said and stood. “You both doubt The Elite, and before you say anything, Seungkwan, it’s alright to doubt your father. Will you both just please come with me to the other rebels?”

“I can’t,” Seungkwan stated.

Chan narrowed his eyes and offered Seungkwan his hand. “You can.”

Seungkwan eyed his hand before grabbing it. “Alright. We’ll come with you.”

Minghao almost jumped out of his skin when the hatch to the bunker opened and Chan, along with two others, climbed down.

“The missing puzzle pieces,” Minghao breathed, standing up.

Hansol looked in his direction. “What?”

“There’s thirteen of us.” Minghao looked around at everyone in the room, not counting Wonwoo and the hacker from his dream. “Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Jisoo, Junhui, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Seokmin, Mingyu, Chan, you two, and the hacker. That’s thirteen, including me.”

Seokmin gaped at him. “That means we can overthrow The Elite and rescue Wonwoo and the hacker.”

Seungkwan smashed his fist into the wall, not pulling away even after wincing from the pain.

Seungcheol glared in his direction. “Excuse me, but—”

“You’re planning to overthrow my _father_?”

Everyone except for Hansol and Chan stared at Seungkwan with different expressions. Seungcheol seemed angry instantly, for he launched himself at the man with every intention of poking his eyeball out. Seungkwan stumbled backward into the wall with a yelp, wrestling with Seungcheol on the floor of the bunker.

_A boy turned toward the person who had just accused his friend group of stealing his lunch money, quickly retorting, “None of us stole anything.”_

“Seungcheol, stop,” Minghao said loudly, but Seungcheol did not listen. After he had yelled it two more times with no change, he was tired. He whirled around and grabbed ahold of Wonwoo’s keyboard with both of his hands, chucking it at Seungcheol’s head. It bounced off of his back instead, and he took his hands off of Seungkwan. “Stop. He’s a puzzle piece.”

Seungcheol stood and shook his head. “The Elite is his father, Minghao.”

Jeonghan quickly rushed over and grabbed ahold of Seungkwan and Hansol, guiding them to another room so that he could explain everything in peace before anyone else could have an outburst.

“Minghao—”

“He’s a puzzle piece.” Minghao turned and walked back to his room without another word, his head pounding.

The last thing that he heard before he fell asleep was the sound of Junhui’s coughs and Jisoo’s frantic voice.

Soonyoung jumped in front of Wonwoo as he watched the hatch open to reveal a security guard, followed by two others.

“Soonyoung,” Wonwoo whimpered, glaring at the security guards.

Soonyoung grabbed his hand. “You’re going to have to follow my lead.”

The security guard the emerged first tapped on her watch and muttered, “We found Xu Minghao and Jeon Wonwoo,” before yanking a tranquilizer gun out of her belt. She aimed at Soonyoung first, pulling the trigger, only to be surprised by his fast reflexes. He quickly ducked to the ground after pushing Wonwoo out of the way and pulled his boot off, throwing it at the security guard’s hand. His shoe smacked against her hand, and the tranquilizer gun flew out of her weak grasp, toppling off of the edge of the building.

“Wonwoo, go,” Soonyoung ordered, pointing to the other side of the roof. “There’s another ladder over there. Go!”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Wonwoo huffed and grabbed his hand once more.

Soonyoung stared at him with watery eyes before nodding, both of them standing and balancing themselves.

“Get rid of the guards!” Soonyoung yelled at Wonwoo and released his hand, throwing his weight against one of the security guards.

It was apparent to Soonyoung that only one of the security guards had a tranquilizer gun, and that one weapon had fallen off of the roof of the building. The other security guards had syringes filled with a certain kind of medicine, which was convenient for him. The security guard that he had thrown his weight against had dropped his syringe easily, his grip proving to be weak. The security guard kicked at his head when he reached for the syringe, but he dodged, stabbing the syringe into the guard’s left leg.

Wonwoo was having more trouble. One of the security guards had him in a chokehold as another was walking toward him, holding a syringe. He wriggled in the guard’s grip, kicking his legs up when the other attempted to tranquilize him, kicking her in the head. She fell onto the ground with a scream, holding her head as blood soaked her fingers.

Soonyoung grabbed the syringe from her other hand and threw it as if it were a dart at the security guard that had Wonwoo in a chokehold, and the needle smashed into her neck, missing Wonwoo by an inch.

“Thanks,” Wonwoo choked, falling to the ground with a huff.

Soonyoung nodded at him and stamped his foot onto the remaining security guard’s head and did something that he had never attempted before; he used his foot to roll her body to the edge of the building and kicked, watching with wide eyes as her body dropped, the security guard letting out an eventually fading scream as she was forced off of the building.

“W-What did you do?” Wonwoo gasped, turning away from the scene.

“She’ll probably die.” Soonyoung grabbed Wonwoo’s hand gently, noticing his puzzled look. “Elimination. I eliminated her.”

“That’s not—”

Soonyoung yanked at Wonwoo’s hand as more security guards emerged from the hatch. He began to run to the other side of the roof, watching as the other hatch opened four seconds afterward, revealing more security guards.

“We’re surrounded,” Wonwoo said, his body shaking. “They’re going to catch us, they’re going to eliminate us—”

Soonyoung yanked Wonwoo close to his body and kissed his forehead softly before turning toward the edge of the building. He held Wonwoo’s hand tightly before making sure that his other hand was ready to grab ahold of something before jumping off of the edge.


	7. day six

Soonyoung, holding Wonwoo’s hand, fell to a window on the fourth floor before grabbing ahold of a windowsill. His heart was pounding rapidly, and he could feel his grip on Wonwoo weakening, but he refused to let him drop.

“Wonwoo!” Soonyoung yelled down at him, his voice shaking. He could feel the wind ruffling his hair. “Is there a window that your feet can reach?”

Wonwoo kicked his foot forward softly, his touch being met with the metal of the building. “N-No.”

Soonyoung panicked, looking up at the window above his head. He could not break the window open without letting go of the windowsill or Wonwoo, and he did not plan to do either. He glanced up and found a ledge that was near the window, but he had no idea how to climb up onto it.

“Wonwoo,” Soonyoung murmured, “what’s below you?”

Wonwoo could not bring himself to look down. “I’m going to fall.”

“I won’t let you. Look down.”

Wonwoo inhaled sharply as he directed his gaze down, finding only more windows that were tinted red because of the alarms that were blaring, and ledges that he was sure he would never be able to grab ahold of. “Just windows and ledges. W-Why?”

“Can you grab ahold of one if you fall?”

Wonwoo shook his head frantically, pulling his other hand up to grab ahold of Soonyoung’s hand with both of his hands. “No, I’m scared, Soonyoung—”

Soonyoung’s body swayed on the windowsill slightly when Wonwoo grabbed ahold of his hand with both of his. “Wonwoo—”

The first hand of Wonwoo’s that Soonyoung had grabbed ahold of while on the roof slipped, and he was hanging onto his friend with one sweaty hand again. “I’m going to fall!”

Soonyoung’s hand slipped from the windowsill, and they were spiraling downward again. He felt Wonwoo’s grip fade, and while Soonyoung grabbed ahold of a ledge, Wonwoo did not.

Jihoon prodded Minghao awake with a stick.

“Why are you poking me?” Minghao muttered groggily, rolling over to swat the stick out of his hands.

_“Alright, fuckers,” a boy said loudly, standing on top of a table. “We need to find the bitches who stole my lunch money.”_

“Go away,” Minghao sighed.

Jisoo appeared in the doorway with a cup of water, and he held it out to Minghao with a gentle smile. Minghao eyed it but did not take it, which prompted the doctor to set it down on the ground beside his bed. He set a pill next to the cup. “This may help with your headaches, so take it if you’d like, but I would like it if you would,” he said before leaving.

Jihoon looked down at the cup and the pill, which was orange. “Will you just take it?”

Minghao reached down and grabbed both of the objects, swallowing the orange pill with the help of the water. He drank the entire cup of water, feeling better after doing so, and he stood and followed Jihoon into the main room.

Seungcheol looked annoyed.

“What’s wrong?” Minghao asked before anyone could stop him.

Seungcheol shot him a glare, softening upon seeing that it was just Minghao. “What’s wrong? Three of our puzzle pieces are apart of The Elite, The Elite is Seungkwan’s father, Wonwoo is captured, the hacker is captured, Junhui is still kind of sick, Mingyu is really fucking tall—”

Minghao confusedly stared. “What does Mingyu have to do with it?”

“You broke Wonwoo’s keyboard—”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Plus, there’s guards everywhere, and we can’t possibly get into The Elite’s building to save them.”

Seungkwan rose a hand into the air to signal for everyone to let him speak, which made Seungcheol angry. “You just got here,” Seungcheol remarked, glaring. “You can’t just shut us up.”

“Give him a chance,” Jeonghan huffed, and Seungcheol quieted.

“I don’t like the idea of overthrowing my father,” Seungkwan revealed, “but we can get Wonwoo and the hacker guy away from harm. I’m The Elite’s son.”

“We’re coming with you, if that’s the plan,” Mingyu hummed. “You have power. You can get us all off of the most wanted list.”

“Okay, but the thing is, how do we find them?” Hansol inquired. “They both escaped.”

Jisoo stared at him in disbelief. “Excuse me? Wonwoo would’ve come back here.”

“Unless he couldn’t have,” Junhui pointed out. “Maybe he’s hiding somewhere.”

Minghao locked eyes with Hansol after he opened his mouth to speak again.

_“Are you talking about the money I picked up off of the ground the other day at lunch?” a boy asked softly, reaching into his pocket to pull out some won. “I thought it was mine. I dropped mine too. Sorry, here.”_

“We found all of the puzzle pieces.” Minghao grabbed a piece of paper and sat down in Wonwoo’s chair, ignoring his migraine. “Give me a pen.”

Seokmin handed him a pen, and he silently began to draw a plan. _His_ plan. He, quite frankly, did not care if someone did not enjoy the plan, because he knew that his plan would work. He drew The Elite’s building, including all nine floors and the roof, and he began to draw arrows, signaling where they would go. He drew other symbols, such as a circle for alarms and cameras, stick figures for people, and a box for a computer. He finished with a mess of scribbles that only he could properly decipher.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jihoon questioned.

“It’s the plan.” He pointed to the entrance of The Elite’s building on his drawing, tracing his plan as he spoke. “We’ll walk in, and Seungkwan will disable all of the cameras and alarms. He’ll tell all of the workers to take a break and go to a store or something. When that’s done, we find Wonwoo and the hacker, then we find The Elite. From there, I’m not sure, but…”

“We’re not harming my father,” Seungkwan stated.

Minghao folded the paper and placed it into his pocket. “If he won’t step down, then—”

“The plan might just work,” Jeonghan interrupted, stepping forward, “but when do we put it into action?”

“Right now.”

Junhui properly stood for the first time in days, ignoring Jisoo’s protests. “Minghao, it’s not that simple—”

“Yes, it is,” Minghao growled, his hand curling into a fist. “You, Seungcheol, and Wonwoo have been doubting The Elite forever. All thirteen of us doubt The Elite. We all want the same thing, but we have to save Wonwoo and the hacker first, and we can’t wait any longer.”

Everyone sat down silently, staring at Minghao with shining eyes.

“I can’t force any of you to do anything. I can’t force Seungkwan to fight his father. I can’t force anyone to fight alongside me.” Minghao stood up straight and pursed his lips. “If anyone doesn’t want to be apart of this plan, you can leave now, but this won’t be successful with even one person missing from the puzzle.”

Seungkwan stood, just as Minghao had predicted him to. However, instead of leaving the bunker and returning to his daily activities, he spoke. “A puzzle does not look right if a piece is missing, so I will help as long as everyone else does.” He sat back down afterward.

Minghao nodded. “Alright, let’s go, then. How many tranquilizer guns and darts do we have?”

“We have thirteen tranquilizer darts and one gun,” Seungcheol announced. “We have a hammer, too.”

“Give everyone one dart, and save the other two for Wonwoo and the hacker.” Minghao watched as Seungcheol nodded and headed to the weapon room. “Who’s the best shot?”

“Jihoon,” Seokmin said quickly.

Minghao nodded and waited until Seungcheol returned to the room to speak again. He told him to hand the tranquilizer gun to Jihoon, and he obeyed without another word, passing out the tranquilizer darts.

“Use these only if you’re forced to.” Minghao stuffed his tranquilizer dart into his pocket, and everyone did the same, Seungcheol placing his hammer into his belt. “Jisoo, bring all of the medicine that you have.”

Jisoo scurried away to Junhui’s bedroom, fishing bottles of medicine out from underneath his bed before returning to the main room. He placed the medicine into his pocket.

“Is this all that we need?” Minghao asked, looking around the room, seeing the mixed emotions.

“I believe so,” Chan mumbled. 

Minghao pointed toward the exit. “Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan will lead the way. Seungkwan will call a taxi over and tell the driver to wave over a few more taxis, so we can arrive at the building quickly. Four of us to two of the taxis, three of us to another, so Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan will ride in one.”

Seokmin placed a hand on Minghao’s shoulder before he could follow Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan out of the bunker. “Your plan will work,” he said softly.

_”It’s actually my birthday. I always come here with my mother on my birthday, but since she passed away a month ago, I came alone.” A boy wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, pancakes on a plate in front of him._

“Yeah,” Minghao replied, rubbing at his head. He pushed Seokmin in front of him, leaving after everyone had climbed out of the hatch. He glanced behind him at the empty bunker before following.

Seungkwan waved a taxi over once the eleven of them reached the road nearest to the woods. A taxi drove over in record time, and Seungkwan opened the door and climbed inside, Hansol and Chan following.

“Call two other taxis over for my friends, please,” Seungkwan ordered.

The driver rolled down his window and leaned his head out, whistling loudly, holding up two fingers. Two taxis drove over in about two minutes, and the rest of them split into two groups, climbing into the taxis. The grouping did not matter much, for when they reached The Elite’s building, all of them hurried over to the front door after thanking the drivers, who just gave them nods.

Seungkwan tapped on a keypad on the door, entering fifteen numbers into the system before placing his arm back at his side.

“What’s the password?” Mingyu asked curiously.

Seungkwan rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Is it just the number one repeating?” Junhui snorted.

“No!”

Chan nodded at Junhui with a smile, earning a slap on the arm from Seungkwan. Seungkwan guided the others inside, looking at Minghao for guidance.

“Disable the alarms and cameras,” Minghao whispered to him.

Seungkwan obeyed and ignored the glances that he was receiving from security guards, leading his friends to the second floor where the control room was located. Before they could walk up the first flight of stairs, Jisoo, standing in the doorway, yelled to them, “Wait!”

Minghao turned toward him. He did not want to create a commotion, so he followed, the others turning back as well. “We have to hurry,” Minghao mumbled, gently grabbing Jisoo’s hand.

“No, there’s someone on the ground out here—”

Jeonghan frowned. “Jisoo, come on—”

“I’m not joking!” Jisoo yanked out of Minghao’s grip and ran outside to find the person who was apparently on the ground.

Minghao sighed. “Let’s follow him.”

“Wonwoo!”

Seungcheol and Junhui widened their eyes and pushed through the others, rushing over to where Jisoo had sprinted. The others followed as Seungkwan told the workers to stay put and not bother him or the others, in which they nodded frightfully.

Jisoo was hovering over an unconscious body when the others reached him. Seungcheol and Junhui had gotten there first, and their jaws dropped as they fell onto the ground. Minghao pushed Seokmin to the side in order to get through, eyes widening upon seeing who it was.

The unconscious body was Wonwoo.

“Jisoo,” Minghao breathed, “is he alright?”

“I don’t know, but I think he’s been unconscious for an hour or more.” Jisoo placed his hand over his heart, and it was beating slowly. “He’s fine. Is this elimination? Does a heart lose its beat?”

Jeonghan picked Wonwoo up into his arms and quizzed, “What do you mean?”

“When I became a doctor, I was told that when a heart loses its beat, the person is gone.”

On the second floor, a window shattered. Alarms blared and cameras snapped pictures, and Minghao yelled at the others to follow him to the control room. The others nodded and rushed after him as he ran back into the building and up the stairs, Jeonghan being the last one to climb up the flight of stairs because of an unconscious Wonwoo in his arms, positioned with his head on his shoulder.

Minghao spotted someone sprinting into the control room, and he quickly followed, Seungkwan at his side. Some of the group remained outside of the room, since it was rather small, but Hansol and Chan remained near Seungkwan nonetheless.

The someone was typing rapidly on the keyboard, whirling around upon hearing footsteps.

“You!” Seungkwan said accusingly. “You’re the one who blew up a part of our building. I’m bitter—”

The someone ignored Seungkwan and gazed into Minghao’s eyes. “You found everyone.”

“It’s you,” Minghao said, swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat. “You’re the hacker. You’re the person from my dream.”

A smirk plastered itself onto the hacker’s face. “It wasn’t a dream. My name is Soonyoung. Is Wonwoo alright?”

“How do you know Wonwoo?” Chan asked.

“I know all of you. I know your names, personalities, and everything else there is to know.” Soonyoung turned back to the keyboard. “Is Wonwoo alright?”

Jisoo stepped into the room. “He’s fine. We found him on the ground outside. Do you know what happened?”

“He fell off the building. I was hanging onto a windowsill, but I managed to climb down and break a window.” Soonyoung’s face grew grim and sad. “Don’t ask anymore questions. Seungkwan, what’s the password to this computer? We can make this easy.”

Seungkwan sighed and looked down at his shoes. “The number one repeating fifteen times.”

“I expected that from you,” chuckled Soonyoung as he repeatedly pressed the number one over and over. The computer dinged, and he clicked on the screen a few times. The alarms that were sounding abruptly shut off, and the cameras lost their light, signaling that they were not turned on anymore.

“You read our mind,” Minghao murmured.

“Do you have a plan?”

Minghao fished the drawing that he had drawn out of his pocket and handed it to Soonyoung. “We—”

“Seungkwan tells the workers to get out, and since you’ve already found Wonwoo and me, we’re going to The Elite?”

Minghao almost laughed. “How did you read that?”

Soonyoung bit his lip and shook his head. “Never mind. We need to continue your plan, whether it’ll work or not.”

Seungkwan pushed Soonyoung out of the way of the keyboard roughly, typing a few words into the system. A microphone symbol popped up onto the screen, and he pressed a button on the keyboard before speaking loudly. “All workers are to take a break,” he announced. “Get out of the building or be eliminated.”

The thirteen of them listened as workers silently exited the building, their shoes scraping against the metal floor.

“Let’s eliminate The Elite,” Soonyoung ordered, using the word that they used for ‘ _kill_.’

“We’re not eliminating my father!” Seungkwan snarled.

Soonyoung slammed his fist onto the table that held the keyboard, causing the computers and keyboard to shake. “He’s not your father. Nobody’s parents are their parents. You were just told that random people are your parents. Some people were told that they don’t have parents. Everyone’s lives are lies!”

Minghao stared at him with glossy eyes, tears threatening to fall. “That’s true, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

Soonyoung straightened. “Your so-called parents don’t give a fuck about any of you. Deep conversations are prohibited, why would they?”

“He cares about me,” Seungkwan whimpered, horrified.

“You think that he does because he’s allowed to say whatever he pleases to you. He’s The Elite. He just cares about his work, not you. He would eliminate you in a heartbeat.”

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes. “I think that’s enough—”

“I’ve been on my own since I was a child! Don’t tell me what enough is when I’ve been depressed for so damn long because I didn’t have any of you!” Soonyoung screamed at them, tears streaming down his face. “Your memories aren’t the ones you should have! Your memories are lies!”

Seungkwan’s face dropped. “Soonyoung—”

“I watched my parents get eliminated because they fought back! They were stabbed with a knife!” Soonyoung threw the keyboard at the wall, and it shattered on contact. “That’s what elimination is! It’s murder, but none of you know that! So, if you think that I’m not going to get my hands on that Elite, you’re wrong. I’m done with this bullshit.”

Minghao held out a hand, but Soonyoung just glared at it, pushing him away. “Soonyoung,” Minghao murmured, a tear falling off of his cheek, “we want to defeat The Elite just as much as you do. You’re going to guide us.”

Soonyoung eyed his hand again. “You believe me?”

Seungkwan placed his hand on top of Minghao’s, and Hansol, Chan, and Jisoo did the same. The others crowded into the room and placed their hands on top of the pile as well, staring at Soonyoung with tearful eyes. Mingyu seemed to be crying more than the others, seemingly distressed, but nobody questioned him.

Soonyoung placed his hand on the top of the pile with a sad smile.

“Let’s defeat The Elite,” Minghao said.

The others agreed with a nod. They removed their hands and rushed out of the room, Wonwoo’s body heavy in Jeonghan’s arms.

“His office is on the eighth floor,” Seungkwan commented. “He’s always in there.”

Soonyoung led the way up the stairs. They climbed the flights of stairs that guided them to the eighth floor, stopping in front of the door that had **The Elite** printed on it in bold letters, much like Seungkwan’s office. He wasted no time in opening it, and when he did, nobody was in the room.

“Where is he?” Minghao asked, stepping inside of the room along with Soonyoung.

A hole in the floor in the hallway opened underneath the others, sending them spiraling downward to the seventh floor. Soonyoung and Minghao turned around to rush after them, but the door slammed shut.

“Soonyoung,” Minghao huffed, “what’s going on?”

Soonyoung grabbed the door handle, instantly recoiling, for the handle was burning hot to the touch, along with the rest of the door. “The Elite knows we’re here. Someone snitched.”

Minghao narrowed his eyes. “Nobody snitched. The cameras and alarms were turned off, and Seungkwan put on an announcement. That’s how he knows we’re here.”

“No,” Soonyoung answered. “He prepared this shit for when he knew that all thirteen of us—”

“Who would’ve snitched, then?” Minghao asked, genuinely confused.

“I wouldn’t know. We need to find a way out.”

“You’re a hacker. Use The Elite’s computer.”

Soonyoung turned around and sat at The Elite’s desk, placing his fingers onto the keyboard. “Stay back. This might go wrong.”

Minghao obeyed with no questions.

Soonyoung’s fingers went everywhere on the keyboard, typing in multiple things that Minghao could never understand. He attempted the password of one repeating, but the computer beeped, signaling that the password was incorrect. He began to hack the system. After five minutes of failed attempts, he stared at the screen in defeat.

“Did you do it?” Minghao asked gently.

Soonyoung shot him a look. “Does it look like I did?”

“No.”

“No, Minghao, I did not.”

Soonyoung tried a different approach. He grabbed the computer with both of his hands and ripped off the cords that were plugged into the electricity outlet, chucking it at the metal door. The computer immediately began to smoke, and it caught on fire in a second.

“What the hell?” Minghao yelped, jumping backward.

“Watch out,” Soonyoung ordered and hugged Minghao close to him, huddling in the corner of the office.

The computer exploded, and the door handle fell off of the door, rolling around on the floor before coming to a stop. Pieces of the computer flew everywhere, which caused Soonyoung to shield Minghao in every way that he could, a piece of the flaming computer striking him on the arm. A piece fell onto the wooden desk, catching it on fire.

“We’re going to have to break out of this room using that table,” Soonyoung muttered.

“It’s on fire!”

“No shit!” Soonyoung stood and grabbed Minghao’s hand, pulling him over to the table, grabbing the end that was not ablaze. “Grab on. Hurry!”

Minghao pushed him aside a bit as he grasped the table. They picked it up and ran forward, slamming it into the door. The table splintered, but it was not broken. The metal became dented. They forced the table toward the door again, and a leg broke off of the flaming table as it came in contact with the hard door. The table fell apart on the fourth shove, but they used the remaining piece to slam into the door with all of their strength, and it flung open, creaking loudly. They threw the table to the ground.

“Jump,” Soonyoung instructed, and he held Minghao’s hand firmly as he jumped through the hole in the ground.

They landed on top of Jihoon, and he fell with a squeak.

“You’re okay!” Jisoo cheered, clasping his hands together. He was giving a conscious Wonwoo a pill.

“Wonwoo!” Minghao and Soonyoung said simultaneously, clambering off of Jihoon’s back.

Jihoon huffed. “Hey!”

“Hi,” Soonyoung replied jokingly.

“Fucker, I really—”

Wonwoo spit the pill into his hands, coughing. “This tastes terrible.”

“Your leg is broken.” Jisoo fished a new pill out of the bottle. “This will help with the pain.”

Wonwoo sighed but stuffed the pill into his mouth, swallowing it after throwing the spit covered pill onto the ground. Jeonghan gathered him into his arms again, apologizing when he uttered a pained whimper.

“Does anyone know where The Elite is?” Soonyoung inquired. “One of us snitched. One of us told The Elite that we’d be here.”

Mingyu shook his head frantically. “Nobody would—”

“They would. We’ll find out the snitch soon enough.” Soonyoung clenched his fist. “Let’s get to the control panel. He should be there.”

Mingyu led the way to the stairs, since he was the closest. However, the stairs broke apart, and Mingyu fell off of the ledge, landing on his stomach. He was yanked away by an invisible force, letting out a scream.

“Mingyu!” Junhui yelled, being pulled away from the ledge by Jisoo.

“Let’s get to the control panel, now!” Soonyoung shouted and jumped down to the sixth floor, being followed by the others. They had to jump down to every floor, for the stairs had been removed for each floor, most likely to slow them down.

Soonyoung raced toward the control room, but the door slammed shut as soon as he reached it.

“He’s in there,” Seokmin said.

“Yes,” Soonyoung responded with a nod. He threw his weight against the door, which caused him to fall with a hiss of pain, for the metal door did not get along well with him. “He doesn’t want us inside, either.”

The door creaked open. Soonyoung regained his balance and dashed inside, followed by Minghao, the others remaining outside.

The Elite was holding a knife to Mingyu’s throat.

“Let him go,” Minghao demanded, yanking his tranquilizer dart out of his pocket.

The Elite smiled. It was a dark, maniacal smile. “Why would you want me to? He betrayed you.”

Minghao shivered at the sound of The Elite’s voice. It was cold, a type of coldness that was not a winter wonderland, but a type of coldness that one would feel when trapped in the forest without shelter.

“He wouldn’t.”

The Elite pressed the knife into Mingyu’s neck, forming a line of crimson blood that trickled down his throat. “He did. Didn’t you?”

Mingyu closed his eyes. “Yes,” he admitted. “I only befriended you all to turn you in to The Elite. I didn’t—”

“You’re making him lie!” Minghao screamed.

Soonyoung grabbed his arm. “Listen to his voice. He’s not lying.”

“I was scared!” Mingyu yelled, the knife pressing harder into his skin. He closed his mouth.

Minghao threw the tranquilizer dart at The Elite without a thought in his mind. The Elite plunged the knife deep into Mingyu’s neck completely, dodging the tranquilizer dart easily, throwing Mingyu’s limp body to the ground.

Blood squirted from Mingyu’s neck as he fell, and he went limp five seconds afterward. The knife stayed in place in his throat until The Elite yanked the weapon out, pointing it at Soonyoung and Minghao, the blood glowing dangerously in the darkness.

“Mingyu!” Minghao cried, launching himself forward. Soonyoung yanked him backward, catching a tranquilizer dart that Seungcheol threw to him.

“Leave him,” Soonyoung growled, forcing Minghao behind him. His eyes were watery. “H-He betrayed us.”

The Elite walked toward Soonyoung, holding the knife close to him. “Son, you can’t really want them to eliminate me?”

Seungkwan drew his arm back and threw his tranquilizer dart purely out of anger. The dart bounced off of the wall, barely missing The Elite. “You’re not my father!”

The Elite was taken aback. He lowered the knife slightly. “You’re my son—”

Soonyoung grabbed ahold of the hand that was holding the glistening knife, pushing it toward The Elite’s heart. The Elite reacted quickly by launching the knife into Soonyoung’s arm after turning his arm around.

Soonyoung stumbled backward, falling into the metal wall, his head slamming dangerously against it. Jisoo ran over to him and widened his eyes upon seeing the blood, unsure of how to react.

“You can’t win,” The Elite chuckled. “I’m too powerful, I own—”

“We’re too powerful,” Minghao countered. “There’s thirteen of us against one of you.”

“You’re weak. I’ve been running this place since my father was eliminated long ago.”

Soonyoung, holding his arm that the knife was still inside of, snorted. “That wasn’t your father. It was some random person that was assigned to be your father.”

“What—”

Jeonghan, Seungcheol, and Junhui threw their tranquilizer darts at The Elite. The Elite dodged them, Jeonghan’s dart almost hitting his ear. He laughed, but the others threw theirs all at once. How he dodged, nobody ever found out, but he did, catching one of them and pointing the sharp point at Minghao.

Jihoon aimed his tranquilizer gun and pulled the trigger.


	8. day seven

Minghao awoke on a soft bed surrounded by metal walls. He began to panic, since the last time that he saw metal was at The Elite’s building when…

Jeonghan appeared in the doorway, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

“Where am I?” Minghao asked, standing. He could feel the cold metal touch his bare feet.

“Seungkwan’s room in The Elite’s building,” Jeonghan explained, pointing to his shoes that were placed next to the bed. “We didn’t know where else to put you.”

“What happened?” Minghao stepped forward but immediately felt dizzy, Jeonghan catching him and steadying him.

“Hey, wait,” Jeonghan chuckled and placed a hand on his shoulders.

“Where’s everyone else? What happened, Jeonghan?”

Jeonghan motioned for him to sit down on the bed, and Minghao did. He awaited Jeonghan’s explanation with his hands clasped together.

“When Jihoon shot at The Elite with the gun, he was spot on, but The Elite hit you with a dart,” Jeonghan informed. “We took The Elite into one of the cells, and when he woke up, we questioned him.”

Jeonghan paused.

Minghao eyed him. “What?”

“Soonyoung can explain better than any of us. He’s outside. Come on.” Jeonghan offered a hand, and Minghao accepted the offer with his lips pursed.

Minghao followed Jeonghan down six flights of stairs, away from Seungkwan’s bedroom. The building was vacant; the usual security guards and simple workers were not busy and rushing around with paperwork in their arms. The alarms and cameras had been taken off of the walls, too. Jeonghan opened the door and led him outside to a patch of grass near the building where Soonyoung and Seungcheol were digging a hole.

“What are you doing?” Minghao asked, but he saw Mingyu’s pale, lifeless body placed next to the hole. “Mingyu!”

Soonyoung and Seungcheol dropped their shovels and looked at Minghao with soft expressions.

“He wants to know what happened after we put The Elite into the cell,” Jeonghan stated. “I told him that Soonyoung could explain it better than any of us.”

Soonyoung and Seungcheol exchanged glances, and Seungcheol murmured, “Tell him. I’ll finish the hole.”

Soonyoung nodded and grabbed Minghao’s hand, leading him to the side of the building, sitting down and leaning up against the wall. Minghao did the same as Jeonghan scurried away, most likely to find the others.

“He told us about Mingyu,” Soonyoung said gently, not letting go of Minghao’s hand.

_“What about Mingyu?” Soonyoung growled, standing in the doorway of the cell._

_Seungcheol stood next to him holding his hammer, making sure that The Elite would not try to escape. Jeonghan was carrying Minghao to Seungkwan’s bedroom on the sixth floor. Jisoo was fussing over Soonyoung’s arm, but Soonyoung had insisted that it was fine, even though it was not, but Jisoo ran over to Wonwoo again. The others were watching intently, staring at Soonyoung and The Elite._

_“He betrayed you all from the start,” The Elite chuckled, eyes wide. “I forced him to. I snatched him from his work one day and told him that if he didn’t listen to me, I would eliminate him. That’s why he randomly showed up. He wasn’t your friend.”_

_“He was our friend,” Soonyoung snarled, eyes watering again. “You just forced him not to be! He never wanted this, did he? Why did you eliminate him? Murder him?”_

_“He was beginning to listen to you all instead of me. I saw it.” The Elite glanced at Junhui, who was staring directly at him. “Is that the one I poisoned?”_

_“You poisoned him?” Seungcheol yelled, raising his hammer. Soonyoung shot him a look, and he lowered the weapon._

_“I made Mingyu sneak into a store and inject poison into something that one of you always stole. Lemons were always missing, so I made him inject the poison into them.” The Elite smiled dangerously. “This was before he met all of you, of course. He came to see me a day or two ago. He was living a double life. Sad.”_

“Was there anything else?” Minghao asked, looking at his feet.

Soonyoung shook his head. “No. He tried to escape, and Seungcheol bashed his head in with the hammer.”

Minghao squeezed Soonyoung’s hand. “What do you know, then?”

“Everything.” Soonyoung shook his head and stood, walking back over to the hole that Seungcheol had made bigger from digging. “I’ll explain this to everyone in the town later. I’m going to have Seungkwan call a mass meeting outside of The Elite’s building, and I’m going to explain everything to them and you all.”

Seungcheol stared at him. “Are you sure?”

Soonyoung nodded gravely. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years, years that you all would never understand. I’m ready to explain.”

Seungcheol nodded and handed Soonyoung his shovel back. Together, they continued to dig the hole that was going to be big enough for Mingyu’s body, and when they finished, they threw their shovels to the ground with deep sighs.

“Seungcheol, would you mind bringing the others over here?” Soonyoung requested. “They deserve to see Mingyu be buried.”

The crack in his voice did not go unnoticed, but Seungcheol dashed away without a word in order to go and find the others. Soonyoung stared at Mingyu’s body sadly, wiping at his eyes with his sleeves viciously.

“It’s okay to cry,” Minghao whispered to him, looking at his bandaged arm. “What about your arm? You shouldn’t be shoveling—”

“Jisoo went to the hospital and got supplies earlier. My arm is fine.” Soonyoung took his hand away from his face, allowing the tears to fall freely.

Minghao frowned. “You got stabbed!”

“It’s just sore,” Soonyoung huffed. “It’s fine. I’m not dead.”

Minghao gave him a puzzled look.

“Eliminated,” Soonyoung corrected.

Ten seconds later, Seungcheol reappeared with the others following him, different forms of sadness plastered on their faces. They gathered around the hole that Seungcheol and Soonyoung had dug for Mingyu’s body, and when Jisoo saw Soonyoung, he scowled and pointed at him.

“I told you not to use your arm!” he scolded.

Soonyoung shrugged lightly, watching as Jeonghan hoisted Mingyu’s body into his arms. Everyone was silent as he gently placed his body into the hole, making sure that he was laying on his back and that his eyes were closed.

“This is elimination, then?” Seokmin questioned. “Why do we have to bury him?”

“It’s the respectful thing to do,” Soonyoung answered. “Would anyone like to say anything?”

Nobody moved or spoke, but their eyes fell upon Minghao as he bent down and placed his hand on the edge of the hole. “You didn’t deserve to be eliminated,” he said softly. “The Elite had no right to use you as his toy.”

Soonyoung smiled softly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to Mingyu’s perished body, grabbing ahold of the shovel again, ignoring Jisoo’s complaints. “We have to put the dirt back onto his body now.”

Seungcheol looked at him, horrified. “Why?”

Soonyoung looked at Seungkwan. “What did you do with the eliminated bodies?”

“We piled them in the basement.” Seungkwan looked down at his shoes, obviously ashamed. “I’ve never been down there. The Elite always just threw them down there. I never saw anyone be eliminated either—”

Soonyoung shook his head. “You’re supposed to bury the bodies. It’s respectful.”

Jeonghan snatched the shovel from Soonyoung, ignoring his glare. “Your arm is probably sore. Let Seungcheol and me bury him.”

Soonyoung smiled at him softly, shaking his head. “I want to help, at least. May I?”

Jeonghan sighed. “Alright, but we’re doing most of it.”

Around noon, they finished piling the dirt back on top of Mingyu’s body. His body was buried in the ground near The Elite’s building, and while they did not have something to properly mark the spot, Soonyoung grabbed the tranquilizer gun that had been given to Jihoon and shoved it into the dirt where his body had been buried. They all uttered a last goodbye before Soonyoung turned away from the grave, inhaling sharply.

“Seungkwan, call everyone to the front of the building. It’s time that they all heard the truth.”

Seungkwan ran into the building without another word, rushing to the second floor and into the control room. Soonyoung followed him, Minghao and the others not far behind, Wonwoo being carried by Jeonghan because of his injured leg.

Seungkwan punched a button on the keyboard that they had stolen from another room and announced loudly, “Every citizen is to come to the front of The Elite’s building at this time.”

“Do you have a microphone that will allow my voice to reach everyone from the roof?” Soonyoung inquired.

“I mean, we have one, but we’ve never used it.” Seungkwan reached into a box that was placed in the corner of the control room, rummaging around before pulling out a microphone and handing it to him. “I don’t know if it works. We’ve always used the computer.”

“Fuck,” Jihoon said into the microphone once Soonyoung turned it on. The swear word echoed throughout the control room. “It works.”

Soonyoung breathed heavily. “Alright. Let’s go to the roof. I’ll tell everyone the truth.”

Minghao grabbed his hand. “Are you sure that you’re ready to do this?”

“Yeah.”

Soonyoung led the way to the roof, Minghao’s hand in his, the others following close behind. They climbed the ladder on the ninth floor to reach the roof, and Soonyoung was shocked at the sight that he saw below. When the others saw his face, they were confused, but upon looking at the street below, they gaped silently, too.

Everyone in the city had gathered around The Elite’s building, just as Seungkwan had instructed. They had been ordered to gather around at the front of the building, but because there was so many citizens, they had to close in on every side of the building in order to get a decent listening spot. Nobody was talking; the whole area was silent.

Soonyoung spoke. Minghao squeezed his hand harder than he ever had before, promising that he would not leave his side.

“Can everyone hear me?” Soonyoung spoke loudly. “Nod if you can.”

Soonyoung watched as every head below nodded, remaining silent.

“My name is Kwon Soonyoung.” Soonyoung’s voice shook as he spoke, but he forced the tears back. “I’m a hacker. I blew up a small part of this building. I’ve been in hiding my whole life, and I was recently caught, but I escaped for a second time. Your lives are lies.

I’m going to start by saying that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I couldn’t have done something earlier. I’m sorry that I didn’t contact anyone for so long. I could’ve stopped this sooner, and I didn’t. I’m sorry.

Years ago on November twenty-fourth, your memories were wiped. I watched my parents get stabbed with a knife because they fought back. Anyone who fought back was stabbed or shot, and whoever listened, their memories were wiped. Nobody could remember their real parents or what they ate for breakfast.

The government had collapsed a day prior to this. Violence broke out everywhere, from riots to hundreds of people being murdered. A man who called himself ‘ _The Elite_ ’ emerged and wiped everyone’s memories, like I said. He wanted a perfect world. He made unreasonable rules to make sure that everyone was perfect. Everyone was given a fucking number! Everyone was identified as a number! If you had a deep conversation, you were murdered!

Elimination isn’t what you all think it is. It’s stabbing someone and throwing their lifeless body into a basement. We are not going to call this act ‘ _elimination_ ’ anymore. We are going to call it murder. Killing.

I watched as everything unfolded. Everyone was given random people and were told that they were your parents, which isn’t true. You all don’t even know what children are. The Elite ruined everything for all of you, and some people caught on. They were deemed rebels. I’m a rebel. Everyone on this roof with me are rebels. Rebels are not bad, contrary to what you all think. We’re smart.

Years ago when the government hadn’t collapsed, children ran around and hung out at parks. People went to restaurants on dates. People had friends, people could have deep conversations about their feelings to each other because they were friends. Cars buzzed around on the streets. Ice cream gave people a brain freeze. People could have birthday parties, and your birthdays are a lie, too. The Elite took that all away from you.

The original Elite was killed because he broke the rules. I have no idea why since I did not want to be captured, so I didn’t go and find out. The Elite that was in office a second ago is gone. There’s no Elite anymore.”

Gasps erupted from the crowd below, but Soonyoung continued.

“My goal is to form a new government with the people standing on this roof with me. You’re all free as of now. You’re allowed to talk to each other, you’re allowed to walk around on the streets, you’re allowed to date, you’re allowed to marry, you’re allowed to make children.

My goal is to make this town what it was. We’re going to make a new set of rules that are reasonable. We’re going to rebuild parks, restaurants, houses. You are not your citizen number. You are you.”

When Soonyoung finished, tears were streaming down his face profusely. Normally, he would have wiped them away, but he remembered Minghao’s words.

_“It’s okay to cry.”_

He cried. He turned and buried his face into Minghao’s shoulder, handing the microphone to Seungkwan, who had walked over.

“I want Soonyoung to be our leader,” Seungkwan said simply into the microphone. “I want Minghao to be next in line. They are both the people who deserve the position.”

Seungkwan threw the microphone off of the side of the building.

Soonyoung could not force everyone in the city to believe him, but he hoped that they did. Everything that he had spoken into the microphone had been true. He was going to rebuild the town. He was going to make sure that everyone was alright again.

Hours later when the sun was beginning to set and the citizens had gone home, the twelve of them were sitting in a circle on the roof.

“Soonyoung,” Seokmin asked, “how did you escape?”

Soonyoung sighed sadly and looked down. “My parents knew what was happening. They told me to run.”

_“Soonyoung! Run!” his mother screamed, letting go of her son’s hand. A knife was plunged into her heart, and she was thrown to the ground next to her lifeless husband._

“They were stabbed to death. I ran. I didn’t look back.” Soonyoung placed his hands in his lap. “I found a place to hide. When I was sure that it was safe, I snuck back to my house and grabbed everything that I needed. I built a bunker in the woods.”

Jeonghan frowned. “You spent all that time alone, and nobody remembered you? We didn’t remember you?”

Soonyoung nodded. “I was going to shoot myself a week ago, but I remembered that I could contact one of you. I contacted Minghao, and he understood.”

Jihoon glanced around at the circle. “Does anyone know where Minghao went?”

Soonyoung stood and shook the dirt off of his pants. “I think I have an idea.”

Soonyoung climbed down the ladder and hurried down the stairs, the stairs that he had restored to their original position since he had figured out how The Elite had made them disappear. He exited the building and walked to Mingyu’s grave, and Minghao was sitting beside it in the grass, crying softly.

“You don’t have to be alone,” Soonyoung murmured. Minghao’s head shot up to stare at him. “May I sit?”

“Yes.” Minghao patted the spot next to him, and Soonyoung sat next to him.

“I kept having these flashbacks,” Minghao chuckled, wiping his tears away. “Why?”

“My messages probably awoke your memories. You might gain them back someday.”

Minghao shook his head and placed his head on Soonyoung’s shoulder. “I doubt it.”

They both stared at Mingyu’s grave for what seemed forever. Minghao silently hoped that Mingyu had died quickly, since he did not think that being stabbed in the neck was exactly soothing. He thought about how Mingyu’s lifeless body was buried beneath of the pile of dirt that he was staring at, and he shivered, closing his eyes.

“Are you cold?” Soonyoung asked, rubbing his friend’s back.

“No.” Minghao smiled. “You’re warm.”

Soonyoung laughed.

“The twelve of us.” Minghao opened his eyes and stared up at Soonyoung.

“No. Thirteen.” Soonyoung pointed at Mingyu’s grave with his wounded arm despite the spark of pain that erupted. “He’s still with us.”

Minghao’s smile grew.

The thirteen of them. Seungcheol, the previous leader of the rebels that always tried his best and looked after the others. Jeonghan, the caring boy who never hesitated to pick one of his friends up into his arms and carry them somewhere. Jisoo, the fussy doctor who wanted everyone’s health to be perfect because he cared. Junhui, the poisoned rebel that had just wanted The Elite gone, and he had received his wish happily. Soonyoung, the depressed hacker that had been alone for so long before finding his childhood friends once again. Wonwoo, the boy with a broken leg that had been captured when trying to steal medicine for his dying friend. Jihoon, the swearing boss who was a good shot that was also ready to defend his friends at any given moment. Seokmin, the boy who rarely spoke that was ready to fight for his companions. Mingyu, the man who had perished, while fighting for his friends, at the hands of a man who had forced him into something that he did not want to do. Minghao, the boy who had saved the town because he had listened to the message given to him. Seungkwan, The Elite’s so-called son that was prepared to fight for the thirteen of them. Hansol, the boy who had doubted The Elite for so long but had never said anything in fear of being eliminated. Chan, the one who had followed the rebels into the woods in order to join them.

They were all together, and even if Mingyu was buried in the ground, he remained in their hearts.

Soonyoung stood and held out a hand. “Come on. Let’s go back to the others.”

Minghao eyed his hand. “One question.”

“Hm?”

“How are children made…?”

Soonyoung sighed deeply, shaking his head. “I’m not having this talk with an adult right now. Come on, dumbass.”

Minghao smiled brightly and grabbed his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope that you enjoyed this fic! if you didn’t, well, i’m sorry??  
> since this was all kind of confusing, if you have any questions of any kind, comment them and i will answer to the best of my ability.  
> maybe there will be a sequel in the future if i get any good ideas for one.  
> thank you for reading!!


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